<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Election Day: &ldquo;Nobody Tells the Truth&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />How did I not know this was once &ldquo;a thing&rdquo; until a few months ago?
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6grh3Ksv535Ncm030KJdmg/0a1aa432e7ffc3eb9f5fb4e406ef8c08/nobody_for_president.png" alt="nobody for president" />
As Wikipedia tells it, &ldquo;Wavy Gravy, master of ceremonies for the Woodstock Festival and official clown of the Grateful Dead, is believed to have nominated Nobody at the Yippie national convention outside the Republican National Convention in Kansas City in 1976&hellip;.
&ldquo;The organizers of the campaign staged a ticker-tape parade down a boulevard in Berkeley, California, with motorcycle police flanking a convertible limousine occupied by nobody.&rdquo;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/37dbHKaLlpSYTdyzeO4KQf/041e698f6e1c598f3b2f85f08b9b667e/dw_tweet.png" alt="dw tweet" />
The campaign&rsquo;s slogans were airtight, beyond dispute, incontrovertible&hellip;
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;Nobody keeps election promises&rdquo;</li>
<li>&ldquo;Nobody will listen to your concerns&rdquo;</li>
<li>&ldquo;Nobody tells the truth.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
The campaign was repeated for the next three election cycles.
Wavy Gravy is still kicking at age 88. On a tribute website for the Nobody campaign, his friend Curtis Spangler says there was a serious point to the whole thing: &ldquo;&lsquo;None of the Above&rsquo; should be a valid choice on voter ballots.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Which, in one state, it is. It happens to be one of the seven &ldquo;swing states&rdquo; this year &mdash; Nevada.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3xUsPsugJuDuQzCsUPTTgj/5dd75c83d275546dddd402bb3d0f9192/ballot.png" alt="nevada ballot" />
It will be fascinating to see how much support is garnered by &ldquo;None of These Candidates&rdquo; in the Silver State.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Even if &ldquo;None of These Candidates&rdquo; is not on the ballot elsewhere&hellip; that Nevada option might prove decisive.
In recent days, independent reporter Michael Tracey has spoken with many undecided voters in Pennsylvania &mdash; the state that our own Jim Rickards, among others, says is the linchpin to the whole contest.
&ldquo;Their profile is substantially different than often assumed,&rdquo; Tracey writes: &ldquo;by and large these voters are not &lsquo;undecided&rsquo; between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, but undecided whether to vote at all, because they are (rationally) disengaged from the election process and fed up with the constant onslaught of billionaire-funded partisan propaganda.&rdquo;
Said an Amazon warehouse worker in Bethlehem: &ldquo;Does it make a difference? &lsquo;Cause they gonna do what they want to do no matter what.&rdquo;
&ldquo;My tentative theory,&rdquo; Tracey concludes, &ldquo;is that these voters tend to lean Trump, when pressed, and could possibly be &lsquo;turned out&rsquo; by a competent Republican vote-mobilizing operation, which it&rsquo;s very unclear exists, despite the enormous amounts of money poured into the Trump/GOP apparatus.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In the meantime, 10 states have activated the Army National Guard for &ldquo;support operations&rdquo; today and beyond.
In alphabetical order they are Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Washington.
In addition&hellip; Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia have put Guard units on standby. They will likely be activated later this week. Good times.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Bitcoin on a Knife-Edge
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Bitcoin sits a hair below $70,000 on this Election Day &mdash; and on a knife-edge, says Paradigm crypto authority James Altucher.
What happens in the days ahead &ldquo;could determine whether Bitcoin heads to $100,000 or tumbles back to $50,000,&rdquo; he tells his Altucher Investment Network subscribers.
Bitcoin&rsquo;s rise to near-record levels coincides with a rise in Donald Trump&rsquo;s poll numbers: &ldquo;The former president has emerged as crypto's unlikely champion,&rdquo; says James &mdash; &ldquo;promising to make America &lsquo;the crypto capital of the planet&rsquo; while vowing to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on day one.&rdquo;
That said, &ldquo;Vice President Harris might not be the crypto-skeptic many assume,&rdquo; says James. &ldquo;The Harris campaign is now accepting Bitcoin donations, and crypto groups are <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/crypto-playing-politics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spending big</a> on Democratic Senate races.&rdquo;
Looking ahead, &ldquo;a Trump victory would likely catapult prices through $75,000 &mdash; the recent high on Micro BTC futures,&rdquo; says James. &ldquo;With no technical resistance above the current all-time high, we'd be in uncharted territory &mdash; quite literally.
&ldquo;If that happens, buckle up. The pattern is measuring up to $95,000, but markets have a funny way of gravitating toward round numbers. In this case, that's $100,000.&rdquo;
On the other hand, &ldquo;a Harris win might trigger initial selling pressure, with $70,000 and $65,000 as critical support levels. A break below could send prices back to test the $50,000&ndash;55,000 range.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />But if you&rsquo;re of a &ldquo;hodler&rdquo; mindset, James says it doesn&rsquo;t matter.
&ldquo;Regardless of who wins, crypto's newfound political influence means more favorable regulation is likely coming. The only real question is speed.
&ldquo;Think of it like a cross-country road trip. With Trump, we're taking the interstate at 80 mph. With Harris, we're on the scenic route &mdash; but we're still heading to the same destination.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Make of it what you will, but Wall Street is staging a solid Election Day rally.
The Dow is up three-quarters of a percent; the Nasdaq is up 1.25%. The S&amp;P 500 is splitting the difference, up 1% at 5,768 &mdash; about 1.6% below the record close of Oct. 18.
Mr. Market seems underwhelmed by the conclusion of the Boeing machinists strike; BA shares are down 0.8%.
Bonds are selling off &mdash; pushing yields higher. At last check the yield on a 10-year Treasury note was over 4.36%, another four-month high.
Precious metals are quiet, gold at $2,738 and silver at $32.62. Crude is adding to yesterday&rsquo;s gains, up another buck to $72.52 &mdash; right around the midpoint of its trading range the last month.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />AI and Nukes: Feds Say &ldquo;Not So Fast&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The federal government just threw an enormous roadblock across the highway leading to nuclear-powered data centers.
&ldquo;The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday rejected a request to increase the amount of power the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania can dispatch to an Amazon data center campus,&rdquo; says CNBC.
Announced last March, Amazon&rsquo;s 10-year deal with Talen Energy was the first of its kind &mdash; a data center getting exclusive access to the power generated by a nuclear reactor. Microsoft then signed a similar deal with Constellation Energy to reopen the undamaged reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, which closed in 2019.
Big Tech needs reliable 24/7 electricity to support the prodigious demands that AI will place on the power grid. These companies would prefer that power be &ldquo;green&rdquo; &mdash; but solar and wind won&rsquo;t be remotely adequate. So&hellip; nuclear it is.
Or was?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The FERC&rsquo;s vote to nix the Amazon-Talen deal was a strange one &mdash; scrambling the partisan boundaries you might expect.
The vote was 2-1, with two of the five commissioners sitting out the vote.
Biden appointee Lindsay See voted against the agreement&hellip; and so did Trump appointee Mark Christie.
For both of them, it appears the devil was in the details: Two power companies in the region &mdash; American Electric Power and Exelon &mdash; said the deal was arranged in such a way that their residential and corporate ratepayers would be subsidizing Amazon to the tune of $140 million.
FERC chair Willie Phillips, a Biden appointee, was in the minority. He said &mdash; more or less &mdash; that the urgency of supplying power for a fast-growing industry overrode questions of who&rsquo;s footing how much of the bill.
&ldquo;Maintaining our nation&rsquo;s leadership in this &lsquo;era defining&rsquo; technology will require a massive and unprecedented investment in the data centers necessary to develop and operate those AI models,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I am deeply concerned that in failing to demonstrate regulatory leadership and flexibility we are putting at risk our country&rsquo;s pole position on this critically important issue.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The decision whacked the share price of Talen (TLN). Other names in the space like Vistra Corp. (VST) and Constellation Energy (CEG) fell in sympathy.
Talen issued this protest: &ldquo;FERC&rsquo;s decision will have a chilling effect on economic development in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey&hellip; The data center economy will require an all-of-the-above approach to satisfy the increased demand, including co-location such as Talen&rsquo;s arrangement with AWS, hybrids that co-locate primary power behind the meter while using grid power for back-up and front-of-the-meter connections to utility transmission.&rdquo;
All of which is probably true. But as we chronicled <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/an-out-of-nowhere-crypto-rally/#4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">last month</a>, this is not the first time that everyday homeowners are being asked to subsidize Big Tech&rsquo;s growing electric costs. Sooner or later, something&rsquo;s gotta give.
To be continued&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Post-Election &ldquo;Societal Mobilization&rdquo;
After yesterday&rsquo;s exploration of how anti-Trump forces might resort to <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/civil-war-by-another-name" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&ldquo;societal mobilization&rdquo;</a> in the event of a Trump victory this week&hellip; we heard from readers who it&rsquo;s fair to say represent opposite sides of the divide.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;The real scenario they need to consider is this: Harris/Walz wins but it's close, so of course as they've been screaming all along, the Trump campaign contests all of the battleground state results because of &lsquo;cheating.&rsquo;
&ldquo;Trump knows that he stands a great chance of having the decision pushed over to the House of Reps or Supreme Court if there's any morsel of doubt.
&ldquo;That would be a slam-dunk election theft if this happens as I just outlined. The Republicans hold a 220-212 edge in seats. They've proven they will choose party over country already.
&ldquo;And as for the Supreme Court, McConnell, Trump, etc. did a great job of stacking the court between 2015 and 2020, so they would obviously pick Trump.
&ldquo;Either of these outcomes would be the biggest election scandal of our lives, and this is his end goal. I truly hope I am wrong.
&ldquo;And in all honesty, the mob rule scenario is a pipe dream. It won't happen. Democrats are scared for sure, but I can't see them mobilizing en masse as described.
&ldquo;I suppose we shall see. Personally, I hope that whatever the outcome is, the good parts of our system survive the next presidency. There are real reasons to doubt that will happen.
&ldquo;Thanks for hearing me out. Cheers.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Counterpoint: &ldquo;I hear what you and John Robb are saying, but I think that if a swarm of pro-Harris forces start seriously getting in our $hit then it won't take very long for the pro-Trump crowd to develop &lsquo;a unifying pejorative or threat narrative strong enough to serve as the basis for a counter-swarm.&rsquo;
&ldquo;Think urban beta males and alpha females against heavily armed Scots-Irish Appalachian hillbillies, military veterans and other generally pi$$ed-off middle and working classes in an existential slugfest. So hold my beer and bring it on, bro!&rdquo;
Dave responds: I&rsquo;m going to throw out another possibility here &mdash; one I first contemplated <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2020/11/03/the-new-civil-war-has-been-postponed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Election Day 2020</a>.
That is, the actual catalyst for &ldquo;civil war&rdquo; or some other kind of &ldquo;social upheaval&rdquo; will not be the election at all. It will be something else. It might be red states resisting a Harris mandate, or blue states resisting a Trump mandate.
From the vantage point of today, it&rsquo;s impossible to say&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />The Endless Vote Count
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Vote counting takes so long, and is mistrusted because we are still doing it in an archaic manner,&rdquo; a reader replies to <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-endless-vote-count" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Friday&rsquo;s edition</a>.
&ldquo;When I look at my Social Security statement or IRS records I have to use an identity verification called ID.ME, which I had to set up with my ID and a facial recognition app. I can transfer some assets instantly with a digital token. All of my crypto transactions are stored on the blockchain, where their records are identifiable.
&ldquo;This entire Stone Age voting system could be quickly and easily replaced using these technologies. Voting results would be known instantly and there would be no question about their integrity. I would have loved to see a candidate campaigning on this simple fix but actually solving problems is clearly not a priority for either candidate.&rdquo;
Dave: On the surface, that sounds like a privacy nightmare.
In a way, the current &ldquo;archaic&rdquo; methods of voting are an improvement on how it was even a decade ago.
After the "hanging chad" debacle of 2000, the feds blew $3 billion on electronic voting machines... then left it to the states to maintain and replace them. Whoops, many states didn&rsquo;t have the money for that.
Just as well: Touch screens were a fiasco from the get-go. In our voluminous archives, we see that during the 2014 midterms, votes for Democrats in Texas flipped to Republican, while votes for Republicans in Illinois flipped to Democrat.
According to the MIT Election Data Science Lab, 93% of votes cast in 2020 had a paper record &mdash; either filled out by hand or printed by a machine for the voter to review.
I dunno, seems like progress?

shutterstock 426883768 (1)

5-bullet-placeholder

Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

Should “None of the Above” be a choice on voter ballots? In one state, it is. 

The Nevada Option: Election 2024

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />&ldquo;The Fifth Pathway&hellip;&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Decisions, decisions&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5ttPwzuhdLGFJulcsJ1eZ8/69b259b3e30ccb3575786b46a1a3529d/civil_war_meme.png" alt="civil war meme" width="400px" />
We pick up this morning where we left off with Bullet No. 1 last Tuesday &mdash; the election &ldquo;war game&rdquo; carried out by several dozen Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans in the summer of 2020.
To refresh your memory, the most eyebrow-raising scenario to emerge from the exercise was one characterized as a &ldquo;clear Trump win&rdquo; &mdash; that is, Trump comes out on top in the Electoral College but Joe Biden garners a five-point margin in the popular vote.
Biden &mdash; played in this exercise by the longtime Democratic operative John Podesta &mdash; puts up a fight. He encourages competing slates of electors in states where he lost narrowly. He even eggs on the West Coast states to threaten secession unless Republicans agree to abolish the Electoral College and to split California into five states to boost its representation in the Senate.
The certification of the election by Congress deadlocks &mdash; and as the group&rsquo;s final report summed up, &ldquo;Jan. 20 arrived without a single president-elect entitled to be commander in chief after noon that day. It was unclear what the military would do in this situation.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Today we tease out what might happen if similar events unfold&hellip; in reality&hellip; in 2024.
Eleven days ago, The New York Times published an opinion piece titled &ldquo;There Are Four Anti-Trump Pathways We Failed to Take. There Is a Fifth.&rdquo;
The authors are Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, professors of government at Harvard.
Some of the pathways were in fact very much taken; they just didn&rsquo;t achieve the authors&rsquo; desired result. In any event, they were&hellip;
<ol>
<li>Let the election process play out and trust that in the end, everything will be all right. (Nope, Trump was elected in 2016)</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li value="2">Keep the offending candidate off the ballot. (The Supreme Court squelched this effort last March)</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li value="3">Hope the political parties keep the offending candidate from achieving party leadership. (The GOP electorate gave Trump its nomination for a third consecutive time this year)</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li value="4">Hope a coalition emerges to make the offending candidate a pariah. (This has flopped. Few big-name Republicans apart from Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney are openly supporting Kamala Harris. George W. Bush and Mitt Romney are keeping a stony silence.)</li>
</ol>
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Which leads to pathway No. 5, a choice the authors call &ldquo;societal mobilization.&rdquo;
&ldquo;When the constitutional order is under threat,&rdquo; they write, &ldquo;influential groups and societal leaders &mdash; chief executives, religious leaders, labor leaders and prominent retired public officials &mdash; must speak out, reminding citizens of the red lines that democratic societies must never cross. And when politicians cross those red lines, society&rsquo;s most prominent voices must publicly and forcefully repudiate them.&rdquo;
But as Election Day approaches, the authors conclude that this choice too appears to be fizzling. As an example, they cite J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon saying his company would &ldquo;survive and thrive&rdquo; no matter the election&rsquo;s outcome.
(That the authors would look upon Jamie Dimon as an avatar of moral authority says something truly twisted about their worldview&hellip;)
So the story&rsquo;s over?
Not at all. Read on&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Mob Rule?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />What if the top-down process described by the authors plays out instead as a bottom-up phenomenon &mdash; angry mobs pushing &ldquo;influential groups and societal leaders&rdquo; to prevent a victorious Trump from taking office?
This is the possibility entertained in an article published Friday by the always-intriguing John Robb at his Global Guerrillas site on Substack.
In this piece, he invokes the specter of what he calls the &ldquo;network swarm&rdquo; &mdash; a speedy and spontaneous mass mobilization behind a cause.
The most vivid recent example was after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Remember the outrage against all things Russian on social media? All the people flying Ukraine flags? The bars that would no longer serve Stolichnaya vodka (even though it&rsquo;s made in Latvia)? The symphony orchestras that canceled performances of Tchaikovsky (who lived in the 19th century)?
Yeah, that happened. And Robb says it wasn&rsquo;t because Joe Biden or anyone else was marshaling the spirit of the people.
Instead it was the network swarm taking the lead &mdash; pushing Joe Biden to impose unprecedented financial sanctions on Russia, and pushing much of corporate America to shut down their Russian operations.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In the instance of a contested election outcome, Robb envisions &ldquo;rapid mobilization (tens of millions of supporters mobilized in days) that take to the streets and decentralized on/offline action that coerces governmental bureaucracies and corporations to side with the swarm.
&ldquo;This mobilization overwhelms and suppresses all dissent (individuals, groups and network platforms).&rdquo;
Of course, Trump supporters constitute their own networked tribe. But Robb says they don&rsquo;t have what it takes to become a swarm. Only Trump opponents have &ldquo;the potential to create a single unifying threat narrative,&rdquo; he says &mdash; the one that Trump is a fascist.
As Robb sees it, the pro-Trump crowd lacks &ldquo;a unifying pejorative or threat narrative strong enough to serve as the basis for a counter-swarm. All it can do is dissent with a weak &lsquo;not a fascist&rsquo; or &lsquo;don&rsquo;t do that, it&rsquo;s dangerous.&rsquo;&rdquo;
No, none of this ends in a good place: &ldquo;There aren&rsquo;t any protections against a swarm rapidly mobilizing,&rdquo; Robb concludes. &ldquo;Once it is mobilized, it will quickly seek to shut down all dissent at every level (including extrajudicial means to suppress X).&rdquo;
➢ Here too, the Ukraine example is instructive. Recall how critics of U.S. aid to Ukraine were frequently canceled on social media, their accounts demonetized not for &ldquo;hate speech&rdquo; or &ldquo;misinformation&rdquo; but simply for dissenting from the U.S. foreign-policy consensus.
What&rsquo;s more, &ldquo;decentralized elements of the swarm (devoid of any worry over long-term damage to the country&rsquo;s stability, the rule of law, or cohesion) will simultaneously seek to overwhelm the opposition to overturn the election,&rdquo; Robb says.
A disturbing scenario, yes. But one we must nonetheless entertain now rather than later.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />An Election-Driven Market Drop of 20%
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />As Election Day approaches, the mainstream tells us Wall Street&rsquo;s confidence in a Trump victory continues to fade&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/77V543RS6yUiTKmITOV204/f01f06c78db200592cdb8916a71f3b2d/ft_headline.png" alt="FT headline" width="400px" />
&ldquo;The dollar weakened and Treasuries advanced on Monday,&rdquo; says the Financial Times, &ldquo;as global markets sharply reined in their bets on a victory for Republican candidate Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race.&rdquo;
The salmon-colored rag points to a poll showing Kamala Harris in the lead in Iowa &mdash; a state Trump carried in 2020 and 2016, but carried by Barack Obama in 2012 and 2008.
It&rsquo;s one more signpost on the road to a contested outcome. As Paradigm&rsquo;s AI-and-crypto authority James Altucher reminds us, the stock market did not react well to the Bush-Gore drama in 2000 &mdash; which went unresolved for 35 days until the Supreme Court stepped in.
&ldquo;The market fell 20% between November and January,&rdquo; says James.
No guarantees of a repeat, though. Back then, the dot-com bust had already been underway for eight months by the time Election Day 2000 rolled around. This year, the major indexes have all touched record highs within the last month.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The most intriguing market action today, however, is in oil.
Over the weekend, the Pentagon sent B-52 bombers to the Middle East for what it said was the &ldquo;protection of U.S. citizens and forces in the Middle East, the defense of Israel and de-escalation.&rdquo;
Seriously? What exactly is &ldquo;defensive&rdquo; or &ldquo;de-escalating&rdquo; about B-52s? Or the ballistic missile defense destroyers that are also being dispatched? Or the fighter squadron and tanker aircraft?
The possibility, however remote, of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wag_the_Dog" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wag-the-dog scenario</a> on election eve &mdash; imagine Kamala Harris being called off the campaign trail later today to hightail it to the Situation Room &mdash; has sent crude up over 2%, approaching $71 again.
The major stock indexes are mixed &mdash; the S&amp;P 500 nearly flat, the Nasdaq up a quarter percent and the Dow down a third of a percent. Bonds are indeed rallying, pushing yields down; the yield on a 10-year Treasury note is back below 4.3%.
The dollar index is down, but not much, at 103.77. Whether it&rsquo;s the election or some other factor, the dollar rally of early and mid-October is definitely taking a breather.
Precious metals are little moved from Friday&rsquo;s closes &mdash; gold at $2,736 and silver at $32.49. Bitcoin is biding its time at $68,573.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Elon Musk, Ron Paul and the DOGE
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Maybe Elon Musk really is serious about slashing the size of government. 
The story has been rumbling beneath the surface for weeks &mdash; Musk volunteering himself to run a &ldquo;Department of Government Efficiency&rdquo; under a Trump administration.
At first blush, it struck me as yet another empty attention-grabbing stunt of Musk&rsquo;s. Department of Government Efficiency? The name is an oxymoron. Government by its nature is inefficient.
Besides, your editor is old enough and cynical enough to know that politicians and other public figures love to rail against &ldquo;waste, fraud and abuse.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s the ultimate cop-out &mdash; freeing whoever says it from the obligation to identify what programs should be cut if government spending is to be reduced.
And then of course there&rsquo;s the DOGE acronym, a nod to Dogecoin &mdash; the crypto that started out as a joke but was later propelled into respectability by Musk and Snoop Dogg.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />But Musk upped the ante eight days ago: &ldquo;I think we can reduce the annual federal budget by at least $2 trillion per year,&rdquo; said Musk at a Trump rally.
Hmmm&hellip; That&rsquo;s 29.6% of fiscal 2024&rsquo;s $6.762 trillion budget. You don&rsquo;t get there by cutting only the proverbial &ldquo;waste, fraud and abuse.&rdquo;
Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) &mdash; the guy who actually takes the words &ldquo;small government&rdquo; to heart &mdash; saw fit to post the following on Xwitter&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6FjaxtvpjZ28JsmI2yNFf3/54fbf9e2d03f5e87d1d262d481d188e2/ron_paul_tweet.png" alt="ron paul tweet" />
To Dr. Paul&rsquo;s immense surprise, Musk replied, &ldquo;Needs to be done.&rdquo;
Later in the week, Paul was asked on a podcast whether he&rsquo;d be interested in some sort of involvement at the DOGE.
&ldquo;Well I would,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;Everybody would know what I believe and there&rsquo;d be no secrets, but I wouldn't want an official position, you know, because I've sort of steered away from getting too involved in the politics of it all right now.&rdquo;
Musk somehow was aware of this, tweeting, &ldquo;Would be great to have Ron Paul as part of the Department of Government Efficiency!" In a subsequent post, he threw in a reference to one of the many classic lines from the 1999 comedy Office Space&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4uHgkmiqWUFXTDYH8COfaO/397671c0385abd04c07ed20125536278/elon_tweet.png" alt="elon tweet" />
Who knows where this will all end up? As Paul said on the podcast, he wouldn&rsquo;t want an official role. His longtime aide Daniel McAdams says if someone from the Kamala Harris team wanted his input on ending the welfare/warfare state, he&rsquo;d be all ears for them too.
&ldquo;We keep the Ron Paul message alive, planting liberty ideas like Johnny Appleseed,&rdquo; McAdams writes. &ldquo;And when the message lands on fertile ground we are happy to engage.&rdquo;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3COODW6VCR7I56rdlE1GJv/df020942c26733ae6ba277c7a31efd75/ron_paul_meme.png" alt="ron paul meme" width="400px" />
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: Peanut, RIP
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Today&rsquo;s mailbag begins with a reader submitting one of the many, many memes that proliferated this weekend in homage to Peanut the squirrel&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3QFklU2TjwCskqehCjUT0Y/f5cf457312ef6200c9b7d65d377dfc67/harambe_meme.png" alt="harambe peanut meme" width="400px" />
&ldquo;Poor Peanut didn't deserve what they did to him,&rdquo; the reader writes.
&ldquo;I kind of expect you to already have a mention lined up for him, but just in case you didn't, the internet is already reacting to the state of New York <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-york-pet-squirrel-seized-peanut-pnut-e6318ee7e74492465bb6b0fc22f085ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killing</a> Peanut the squirrel over an anonymous complaint.
&ldquo;Whether it's pets being in danger, or grotesque government overreach, this one is striking a chord with everyone.&rdquo;
Dave responds: Indeed it is.
I didn&rsquo;t originally plan to include it &mdash; but that&rsquo;s only because I don&rsquo;t have anything to say that other people haven&rsquo;t said already. The &ldquo;grotesque government overreach,&rdquo; as you put it, speaks for itself.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6HZA6zFXXfLrOAvrik7CXI/de61deaa1e23690933c4bec8f48d3cdd/squirrel_meme.png" alt="squirrel meme" />

shutterstock 1048623020 (1)

We pick up where we left off with the election “war game” carried out in the summer of 2020. What might happen if similar events unfold… in reality… in 2024? 

Civil War by Another Name

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Wall Street Recalibrates Its Election Bets
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Wait a minute, I thought the mainstream narrative was that markets were already pricing in a Trump victory.
That&rsquo;s what all the headlines of recent days were saying&hellip;
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;U.S. Dollar Surges as FX Markets Bet on Trump Win, Tariffs&rdquo; (Yahoo Finance)</li>
<li>&ldquo;European Stocks Hit by &lsquo;Trump Effect&rsquo; as Odds Tilt Toward Republican Win&rdquo; (Financial Times)</li>
<li>&ldquo;Billionaire Investor Says Market Is &lsquo;Very Convinced&rsquo; of Trump Victory&rdquo; (The Hill).</li>
</ul>
(We won&rsquo;t leave you in suspense. The billionaire investor in question is Stanley Druckenmiller.)
Anyway, that was then, this is now&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5t93YnFELazD4pywczkBy0/8b2c30b35af9c01f047033cff08fbf7a/ft_headline.png" alt="FT Headline" width="450px" />
&ldquo;Investors have been raising their bets that next week&rsquo;s U.S. presidential election will trigger sharp price swings in bond and currency markets,&rdquo; says the Financial Times.
&ldquo;Benchmarks that measure potential volatility over the next 30 days in foreign exchange and equity markets have also risen ahead of Tuesday&rsquo;s vote, as polls indicate a very tight race between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.&rdquo;
The salmon-colored rag points to the MOVE index &mdash; a measure of volatility in the bond market similar to the VIX in the stock market. This morning it sits at a year-to-date high at 135.
➢ Note well: Anytime the MOVE index surpasses 140, it typically signals some sort of imminent dislocation in financial markets &mdash; most recently, the regional bank failures in early 2023. Yes, we&rsquo;ll be watching this one closely in the days ahead.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Why Does the Counting Take So Long?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />But why the sudden jitters on Wall Street after two or three weeks of certainty that Trump would win?
Maybe it&rsquo;s the realization that even if Trump wins, it will only be after days or perhaps weeks of uncertainty.
Elsewhere in today&rsquo;s FT we&rsquo;re told that &ldquo;U.S. news groups are preparing for an election night that may not result in a clear winner. In 2020, it took four days for the media to declare that Biden had defeated Trump, leaving Americans in suspense as they waited for votes to be counted in Pennsylvania.&rdquo;
An abundance of caution? Or &ldquo;predictive programming&rdquo;?
We&rsquo;re reminded of a &ldquo;democracy in danger&rdquo; speech Joe Biden gave shortly before the midterms two years ago: &ldquo;In some cases we won&rsquo;t know the winner of the election for a few days &mdash; until a few days after the election. It takes time to count all legitimate ballots in a legal and orderly manner. It&rsquo;s always been important for citizens in a democracy to be informed and engaged. Now it&rsquo;s important for a citizen to be patient as well. That&rsquo;s how this is supposed to work.&rdquo;
Which begs the question: It wasn&rsquo;t always this way. What changed?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We don&rsquo;t know the answer. But we do know that in a host of other countries, the results are tallied much faster and with less question about their validity.
The civil liberties litigator-turned journalist Glenn Greenwald has spent the last 20 years splitting his time between the United States and Brazil.
In Brazil, &ldquo;the way every single election works is that the polls open at 8 in the morning and close at 5 in the afternoon or 6 p.m. in the afternoon, depending on the particular state.
&ldquo;And then by 9 or 10 at night, 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m. at the absolute latest, the full complete vote count not just for the presidential race but for the governor races, for the state legislatures are all fully counted and certified.&rdquo;
Greenwald points to other examples&hellip;
<ul>
<li>France&rsquo;s elections in July wrapped up at 6:00 p.m. local time. By 12:30 a.m., results were known for all but 10 of the 577 National Assembly seats</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Indonesia holds the world&rsquo;s biggest one-day election &mdash; with 205 million registered voters spread across three time zones and 75% turnout. Early results are known within two hours of the polls closing</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>In South Korea&rsquo;s elections last spring, 99% of the votes were counted by 6:00 a.m. the next morning.</li>
</ul>
Meanwhile it took nearly two months this spring for California officials to tally the results from a U.S. House primary.
Greenwald: &ldquo;Is it any wonder, even if the counting is perfectly in good faith, that people have serious doubts about the integrity of the results when days go by and the results keep changing and no one knows where ballots are, and there are ballots over here of one kind and ballots over here from another, and some are destroyed and some get lost and some get disputed?&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Yesterday&rsquo;s Sell-off Is Yesterday&rsquo;s News
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />So much for yesterday&rsquo;s sell-off: Amid more Magnificent 7 earnings and the monthly job numbers, all the major U.S. stock indexes are up 1% or better.
The earnings this time are a mixed bag: Amazon is up 7% on the day after reporting strong growth on both the top and bottom lines. The company plans to plow tens of billions more into AI but Wall Street is OK with that because CEO Andy Jassy promises AMZN can &ldquo;monetize&rdquo; those investments.
On the minus side of the ledger, Apple is down 1.5% on the day. AAPL reported record revenue for the September quarter &mdash; but Wall Street analysts were bummed by the outlook for the current quarter.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Meanwhile the media were already setting the table for a lousy job number before its release this morning &mdash; Hurricane Milton and the machinists&rsquo; strike at Boeing, they said.
But no Wall Street economist was expecting a number this weak: The wonks at the Bureau of Labor Statistics conjured a mere 12,000 new jobs for October. As a reminder, it takes at least 150,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with the growth of the working-age population.
While that number can conceivably be chalked up to hurricanes and strikes, this can&rsquo;t: The September and August numbers were revised down, and not by a little. Thus the average for the last three months is only 104,000 &mdash; well off the pace for the first half of the year.
Especially concerning is a drop in temporary positions: When times get tight for a business, temps are among the first to get cut.
The official unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%. It&rsquo;s been 4% or higher for the last five months. The &ldquo;U-6&rdquo; rate &mdash; which includes part-timers who want to work full time and people who&rsquo;ve given up looking for work within the last year &mdash; held steady at 7.7%.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />But for Wall Street, the hurricanes-and-strikes explanation is good enough. 
At last check, the S&amp;P 500 is up 1% on the day. At 5,765 the index sits about 3% below its record close notched two weeks ago today. The Dow and the Nasdaq are both up about 1.3% from yesterday&rsquo;s closes.
Treasury yields keep rising &mdash; the 10-year note now over 4.35% for the first time in nearly four months.
Precious metals are little changed after getting slammed yesterday &mdash; gold at $2,746 and silver at $32.71. Crude is back above $70 a barrel.
Bitcoin has slipped below $70,000 but Paradigm chart hound Greg Guenthner says the price action is still constructive.
&ldquo;Bitcoin quickly attacked resistance at all-time highs earlier this week,&rdquo; he says in today&rsquo;s Truth &amp; Trends e-letter. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s now consolidating in the $70K range and it&rsquo;s starting to look like a breakout will materialize any day now&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/NUDIrSEoT6bYPSySlFvjh/6d1774e1780373b327dcacd072ec7f4f/ttr-issue-11-1-24-img-3.png" alt="BTC" />
&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you exactly when Bitcoin will smash through those highs and start running again,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But when it does, the move will probably be a ferocious one.&rdquo;
One more economic number of note: America&rsquo;s factory sector is still in the dumps, the ISM manufacturing index clocking in at 46.5. Aside from this past March, this number has spent two years mired below 50 &mdash; suggesting a contracting factory sector.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Electric Truck Reality Check
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />It appears blue-state lawmakers and regulators are getting a reality check about going green &mdash; at least when it comes to electric trucks.
California will ban sales of trucks with diesel engines come 2036. But New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Oregon are having second thoughts about following California&rsquo;s lead.
&ldquo;The state is just not ready,&rdquo; says New Jersey state Sen. Patrick Diegnan, the chair of the Transportation Committee. Politico reports he&rsquo;s introducing a bill to delay the start of New Jersey&rsquo;s own mandate by two years.
The reason? Not enough electric trucks and not enough chargers.
For the moment, Washington state is still on board. But the trucking industry is putting Gov. Jay Inslee on notice.
In an opinion piece published on the industry site FreightWaves, Washington Trucking Associations President Sheri Call warns that &ldquo;forcing the move before the technology is ready will have much larger implications for our supply chain and trade-dependent economy.
&ldquo;We need only look to the recent (and brief) East Coast port strike, when shoppers raided store shelves for basic supplies such as toilet paper &mdash; shades of the COVID pandemic all over again.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />The McFlurry Kerfuffle Is Over
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />And now a follow-up to a tweet that we let speak for itself just over three years ago&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4KPz0gidDLbAwH16c8cI3t/35e07f927a129f9231b8e28a5bd48d50/mims_tweet.png" alt="christopher mims tweet" width="350px" />
Because all other problems had been solved at that time, right?
It turns out the problem had nothing to do with negligence on the part of McDonald&rsquo;s or its franchisees. It had to do instead with&hellip; federal law.
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, it is illegal for &ldquo;third parties&rdquo; to bypass the digital locks on anything that possesses a copyright &mdash; such as the software used in McDonald&rsquo;s ice cream machines.
Result? Anytime the machines break down, only the Taylor Co. of Rockton, Illinois is authorized to repair them.
Well, no more. As USA Today reports, &ldquo;The U.S. Copyright Office issued a new set of exemptions last week that allows restaurants to repair equipment used in &lsquo;retail-level commercial food preparation,&rsquo; which includes those soft-serve ice cream machines used to make McFlurrys.
&ldquo;Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group, and e-commerce website iFixit petitioned the U.S. Copyright Office for the exemption, which went into effect Monday.&rdquo;
Public Knowledge issued a statement that&rsquo;s painfully pun-filled&hellip;
<blockquote>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing vanilla about this victory; an exemption for retail-level commercial food preparation equipment will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customers.&rdquo;</blockquote>
&hellip; but nonetheless sane and true.

shutterstock 2389516361 (1)

Why the sudden jitters on Wall Street after two or three weeks of certainty that Trump would win? 

The Endless Vote Count

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />The Rickards Election Scorecard
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We begin the day with a little myth-busting: Based on the best research we can muster, Rob Reiner did not threaten to set himself on fire if Donald Trump won the election. Nor did Bono threaten to drive himself off a cliff.
But the unfounded rumors of those threats have prompted great mirth in the meme-o-sphere this morning&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1U8dEeAiztBFx68N4T2WiG/ae5f770cb10888503a7933ec7ae96e79/bono_meme.png" alt="Bono Meme" />
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In other news, the pollsters and the pundit class beclowned themselves in 2024 at least as badly as they did in 2016.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5N1nu7QBEnT9eXyJdoXxKs/ebbf9c2f694a17d5b7011bb3f193e51a/glenn_greenwald_tweet.png" alt="tweet 1" width="500" /> <img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4rTvsNN2zgppW2BTguySzO/13c291c80537e2d538a8fb95ec13a8d2/tracey_tweet.png" alt="tweet 2" width="500" />
And so we did not end up with the days-long drama we&rsquo;d been promised. (Threatened?)
Our own Jim Rickards got it right when he told his readers we&rsquo;d know the outcome of the presidential race &ldquo;late on Election Day or early Wednesday morning.&rdquo;
The networks called it for Trump around 5:30 a.m. EST after he&rsquo;d sewn up the swing states of North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />But the trajectory was evident well before midnight. 
Trump expanded on his 2020 margin in Ohio. Kamala Harris&rsquo; margin in Virginia shrank relative to Joe Biden&rsquo;s in 2020. Hell, Trump won Miami-Dade County &mdash; the first time a Republican pulled that off since the elder George Bush in 1988.
At this rate, Trump is on track to win the nationwide popular vote &mdash; which he did not in 2016.
In the interest of accountability, let&rsquo;s run down Jim Rickards&rsquo; predictions one by one as issued yesterday morning to readers of Rickards&rsquo; Strategic Intelligence&hellip;
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;Donald J. Trump will win election as president by an electoral vote count of 312-226 in our conservative estimate, and perhaps do as well as 329-209 in a slightly more aggressive estimate where Trump wins Michigan, Virginia and New Hampshire.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
As we write, Trump has 292 electoral votes, comfortably over the 270 threshold. A short time ago, swing state Michigan was called for Trump.
Still outstanding are two more swing states &mdash; Arizona and Nevada &mdash; plus Alaska. If he sweeps all three, that puts him exactly at Jim&rsquo;s conservative estimate of 312. As noted above, Virginia went to Harris &ndash; and so did New Hampshire.
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;My Senate forecast is that Republicans will retake the Senate with a solid 54-46 majority, up from their current minority status of only 49 Senate seats.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
At last check, Republicans have secured 52 Senate seats &mdash; with five seats yet to be decided. Jim&rsquo;s forecast is within reach for the GOP. (More about the state of play in the Senate, given its importance to the crypto lobby, momentarily&hellip;)
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;My House forecast with 435 seats up for grabs is more speculative (due to scarce polling data), but my best estimate is that the Republicans will hold the House and increase their lead slightly to 225-210, up from the current margin of 220-212 (with 3 vacancies). That will give the Republicans a solid working majority.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
Here, it&rsquo;s simply too soon to tell. The Republicans have won 198 seats, the Democrats 180. That leaves 57 seats to be determined &mdash; a number on par with the day after the 2022 midterm elections, by the way.
Not a bad series of calls &mdash; and way better than you got from the likes of the vastly overrated Nate Silver (who I thoroughly torched <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2016/11/08/special-edition-brexit-plus-plus-plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Election Day 2016</a>, when Jim also forecast a Trump win).
What does it mean for the investment landscape going forward?
Earlier today at 11:00 a.m. EDT, Jim Rickards hopped on a video call with our executive publisher Matt Insley. If you&rsquo;re not yet familiar with Jim&rsquo;s work, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sN1TuN6oWk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">there&rsquo;s no better time to get acquainted than today</a>. There&rsquo;s no sales pitch &mdash; just down-to-earth information about how to approach your investments in the weeks and months ahead.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4g8EJFZARwBOowNg2yWUAu/b544888d0ef316d03163cf592ffb7e20/jim_briefing.png" alt="Election Briefing" />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sN1TuN6oWk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to start watching Jim Rickards&rsquo; exclusive post-election briefing right away.</a>
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />The View from Davos&hellip; and BlackRock
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Of course, it&rsquo;s not just celebrities who are losing it at the prospect of a second Trump term&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/mElbInymdVCPbzCidB7mG/5be675bdffa54bc935b2ece395ae2cdf/wall_street_silver_tweet.png" alt="Wall Street Silver Tweet" width="450px" />
But not everyone in the Davos set is at a loss.
As we mentioned during the most recent World Economic Forum gathering in Davos last January, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/davos-welcomes-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">already at peace</a> with a second Trump term.
Here&rsquo;s a real eye-opener, though: The head of the world&rsquo;s biggest asset manager is also at peace.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/7z33Zq8joQpN4rH2tZcB4j/ba464cd5b1c48aeb542e00d5d60f3a2e/ft_tweet.png" alt="FT Tweet" width="300px" />
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of hearing this is the biggest election in your lifetime. The reality is over time it doesn&rsquo;t matter&rdquo;, said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at a conference on Oct. 21.
Yeah, that Larry Fink. The guy who might have become Treasury secretary in a Hillary Clinton administration. The guy who brought the term &ldquo;ESG&rdquo; into common usage (until he backed away from it last year).
&ldquo;It really doesn&rsquo;t matter&rdquo;, he reiterated. At BlackRock, &ldquo;we work with both administrations and are having conversations with both candidates.&rdquo;
The financial sector as a whole is rallying big this morning. The KBW Bank Index is up nearly 10% at last check.
Nor is that the only early winner in view. Read on&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Early Winners and Losers in the &ldquo;Trump Trade&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />It&rsquo;s safe to say Mr. Market is pleased with a decisive and early Trump win.
All the major U.S. stock indexes are back in record territory&hellip;
<ul>
<li>As we write, the S&amp;P 500 is up 2.3% and over 5,900 for the first time</li>
<li>The Nasdaq is up stronger, 2.7% and within reach of 19,000</li>
<li>The Dow is up strongest &mdash; 3.4% or more than 1,400 points &mdash; well over 43,500</li>
</ul>
But small-cap stocks &mdash; those with a market value under $2 billion &mdash; are performing best of all. The Russell 2000 is up 5.3%. At 2,381 the index is within reach of its November 2021 record.
Specific winners and losers, you ask?
Trump Media (DJT) popped huge on the open but has since retreated to a 3.4% gain. Elon Musk&rsquo;s Tesla Inc. (TSLA) is faring much better, up nearly 15% to its highest levels in over two years.
But TSLA is about the only thing &ldquo;green&rdquo; that&rsquo;s prospering today. The sector as a whole is getting slammed; BlackRock&rsquo;s iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN) is down over 7% at last check.
Bonds are selling off hard, pushing yields sharply higher. The yield on a 10-year Treasury note is back over 4.4%, a four-month high.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />A precious metals sell-off was probably coming sooner or later &mdash; and it came today.
Early election returns notwithstanding, gold held its own past midnight on the East Coast. Then it dipped briefly&hellip; tried to recover&hellip; and then it was down, down, down.
At last check, the Midas metal is down $76 or 2.8% at $2,667. It&rsquo;s the first time gold has traded below $2,700 in nearly three weeks.
Silver is, as it is wont to do, taking it worse &mdash; down 4.3% to $31.22. The HUI index of gold stocks is down 2.4% to 310, testing a four-week low.
(What was it we said about it being a bad sign silver couldn&rsquo;t reach $35 and the HUI couldn&rsquo;t hold 350?)
Blame much of the precious metals swoon on dollar strength; the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) is up 1.6% to nearly 105, the highest since early July.
Elsewhere in the commodity complex, crude is flat at $72.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />The Crypto Election
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Bitcoin made a push to record heights amid the early inklings of a Trump win &mdash; and it&rsquo;s still in record territory as we write at $74,641. And shares of Coinbase (COIN) are up 28%.
As our crypto evangelist James Altucher reminded us in yesterday&rsquo;s edition, Trump promised to make America &ldquo;the crypto capital of the planet.&rdquo;
But that&rsquo;s not all. Crypto&rsquo;s emergence as a force in politics is perhaps even more evident in what might be the second-biggest shocker of this election &mdash; the victory of GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio.
Moreno knocked off three-term incumbent Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Banking Committee and vocal crypto critic. Moreno overcame a polling deficit of six percentage points to win by nearly four.
As we <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/crypto-playing-politics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documented</a> last month, crypto PACs plowed $40.1 million toward Moreno&rsquo;s campaign.
But as we also chronicled, those PACs are happy to play both sides of the aisle. So they funneled money toward Democratic Senate candidates in Michigan and Arizona. Neither of those races have been decided yet &mdash; and the Michigan race is neck-and-neck with over 98% of the votes counted.
Still, Ohio is victory enough for the industry. &ldquo;Crypto&rsquo;s big bet pays off,&rdquo; says the subject line of an email blasting out the Buckeye State&rsquo;s results.
&ldquo;The next Congress will be the most pro-crypto ever,&rdquo; says a tracker issued by the trade group Stand With Crypto.
By its count, 253 pro-crypto candidates have been elected to the House, compared with 115 anti-crypto. And in the Senate, the group counts 16 pro-crypto candidates who&rsquo;ve been elected, and 12 anti-crypto.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: &ldquo;Nobody for President&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Yes, nobody is still a thing!&rdquo; writes one of our longtimers after <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-nevada-option-election-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">yesterday&rsquo;s edition</a>.
&ldquo;Here in the State Commie Regime of New York (at least the county I live in), &lsquo;None of These Candidates&rsquo; is not an option.
&ldquo;But &lsquo;Write-In&rsquo; is.
&ldquo;So that&rsquo;s the bubble I fill wherever I see one choice listed for all political parties &mdash; and then I write &lsquo;NOBODY.&rsquo;
&ldquo;Rebellious, no?
&ldquo;I figure any candidate who&rsquo;s slimy enough to be affiliated with every party might steal my vote if I leave the column blank.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nuanced form of anarchy. This is what happens as you get old.&rdquo;
Dave responds: As we write, 84% of the vote has been counted in Nevada and &ldquo;None of These Candidates&rdquo; has garnered 1.2% of the total &mdash; over 15,000 votes.
That&rsquo;s good enough for third place. It&rsquo;s also more than double the combined vote for the two third-party candidates &mdash; Libertarian Chase Oliver and Independent American Joel Skousen.
➢ If the latter name sounds familiar, that&rsquo;s the brother of financial newsletter legend Mark Skousen.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Finally, a correction of sorts to yesterday&rsquo;s edition.
When I enumerated the 10 states where the Army National Guard had been called out for election &ldquo;support operations&rdquo;... I claimed to have listed them in alphabetical order.
&ldquo;Just wondering who alphabetized the list,&rdquo; a reader writes.
I confess I pasted that list into my document and noticed only that the first one began with an &ldquo;A&rdquo; and the last ended with a &ldquo;W.&rdquo;
My bad&hellip; my thanks to the sharp-eyed reader&hellip; and I suppose we can all express gratitude that the Guardsmen aren&rsquo;t needed&hellip;

shutterstock 774708895 (1)

The pollsters and the pundit class beclowned themselves in 2024 at least as badly as they did in 2016.

What? It’s Over Already? 

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />The Media Is Hated More Than Congress!
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.&rdquo;
So wrote Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos this week &mdash; justifying his edict prohibiting the paper&rsquo;s editorial board from endorsing a presidential candidate.
I know, I know &mdash; we already wrestled with this topic on Monday. But it comes back to an ongoing theme in these digital pages &mdash; the malpractice of corporate media. (It&rsquo;s something I know a thing or two about, having worked in the TV news racket for 20 years.)
After more than a decade of owning the Beltway rag&hellip; Bezos now realizes his media plaything/ego vehicle has become a tainted brand.
&ldquo;In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation,&rdquo; he wrote, &ldquo;journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress.
&ldquo;But in this year&rsquo;s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />It&rsquo;s true. Only 31% of Americans have a &ldquo;great deal&rdquo; or &ldquo;fair amount&rdquo; of confidence in the media. Even Congress garners 34%.
That 31% is a record low in Gallup polling going back more than 50 years&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6G7hQ9HfhBIc26k09ujAJe/e37c53cb14b3d40f2009566752ef1f26/Trust_Chart.png" alt="trust in mass media chart" />
As it happens, much of the decline the last two years has been driven by Democrats &mdash; 70% expressing confidence in 2022, 54% now.
In contrast, Republicans lost their confidence &mdash; to the extent they had it in the first place &mdash; in a single year, 2016. (Among independents, it&rsquo;s been just a steady decline over time&hellip;)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Bezos is paying a price for his decision: The paper reports that &ldquo;at least 250,000&rdquo; subscribers have canceled. &ldquo;The figures represent about 10% of the Post&rsquo;s digital subscribers.&rdquo;
But it&rsquo;s a price Bezos appears willing to pay in hopes of rebuilding the credibility the paper lost on his watch, as it threw itself into taking on anything and everything Trump-adjacent.
&ldquo;In the digital age,&rdquo; writes the journalist and civil libertarian Glenn Greenwald, &ldquo;the quickest and cheapest way to earn a profit is to purposely attract an audience that is fiercely loyal to one party or ideology, and continuously feed them validation that they are right about everything.
&ldquo;Outlets that do that &mdash; such as the Post &mdash; are then captive to their own readership: They may no longer engage in the act of journalism &mdash; which, by definition, validates nobody and at times alienates everyone &mdash; and instead must become more akin to political activists who are forced every day to demonstrate their fealty to their readers' partisan loyalties and ideological precepts.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />How times change.
Leonard Downie Jr. was the Post&rsquo;s executive editor from 1991&ndash;2008, when the paper was still owned by the Graham family. He flamboyantly refused to vote&hellip; and he instructed his staff to &ldquo;cleanse their professional minds of human emotions and opinions.&rdquo;
Of course, then and now the Post was part and parcel of America&rsquo;s power elite&hellip; but its leadership recognized it had to at least give lip service to impartiality.
Bezos is coming to recognize the same. &ldquo;We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement.&rdquo;
Greenwald again: &ldquo;It may not be ideal to have a billionaire owner single-handedly override the partisan preferences of his editorial board. But it would be far more alarming if he acted to quash actual journalism.
&ldquo;In this case, Bezos, as the owner of a paper that already loses tens of millions every year, is attempting to respond to a clear reality that his employees refuse to admit: Namely, if they continue doing what they are doing, it will only make them more hated, less trusted and less relevant than they are now.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Mr. Market&rsquo;s Halloween Scare
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Earnings reports and economic numbers have put a minor scare into Mr. Market on this Halloween.
Start with earnings disappointments from two of the Magnificent 7 companies:
<ul>
<li>Microsoft beat the vaunted analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue&hellip; but it &ldquo;guided lower&rdquo; on revenue for the coming quarter as it continues to pour money into AI. At last check, MSFT is down 5.6% on the day</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Facebook parent Meta recorded record revenue&hellip; but the pace of growth in digital advertising is slowing. As we write, META shares have shed 3.4% of their value.</li>
</ul>
More potential thrills &rsquo;n&rsquo; chills from the Mag 7 are coming after the close today when Apple and Amazon report their numbers.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department is out with &ldquo;core PCE&rdquo; &mdash; the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s preferred measure of inflation. When Fed officials speak of their 2% inflation target, this is the number they have in mind.
Unfortunately, the year-over-year increase held steady in September at 2.7%. The number has been stuck at this level, more or less, for five months now.
It&rsquo;s one more data point suggesting the Fed won&rsquo;t be as aggressive with its interest rate cuts as Mr. Market was counting on a few weeks ago. (The Fed makes its next decision on rates one week from today.)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />With this double-whammy, nearly every major asset class is getting clobbered today.
The Nasdaq is taking it worst &mdash; down 2.4% on the day and down almost 3% from Tuesday&rsquo;s record close. The S&amp;P 500 is down 1.6% on the day and down nearly 2.5% from its record close two weeks ago. The Dow is holding up best with a loss of 1%.
Bonds are also selling off, pushing yields up. The yield on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note is now over 4.3%, the highest in nearly four months.
And &ldquo;Mr. Slammy&rdquo; is showing up in the precious metals markets. Gold is down over $50 to $2,735 and silver is down $1.21 to $32.54. Mining stocks as represented by the HUI index are down nearly 3.8%.
Hmmm&hellip; What was it we were saying on Tuesday about silver being unable to break through $35 and the HUI over 350? We&rsquo;re disappointed, but not surprised.
Bitcoin&rsquo;s flirtation with record highs over $73,000 on Tuesday didn&rsquo;t last long. Now it&rsquo;s back below $71,000.
If you want something that&rsquo;s up, it&rsquo;s crude &mdash; up nearly a buck to $69.58.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />THIS Is Who Might &ldquo;Drain the Swamp&rdquo;?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Your editor was agog at this lead to a Wall Street Journal article this week: &ldquo;Billionaire investor John Paulson says he would work with Tesla chief executive Elon Musk to enact massive federal spending cuts if Paulson were to become Treasury secretary in a second Trump administration.&rdquo;
This was the first I&rsquo;d heard Paulson was possibly in the running for Treasury secretary &mdash; but apparently Trump was talking him up for the job earlier this year because he &ldquo;makes a hell of a lot of money. He makes money everywhere he goes, actually.&rdquo;
Paulson was also one of Trump&rsquo;s earliest Wall Street backers during the 2016 campaign cycle.
&ldquo;It is relatively unusual for an ally of a presidential candidate to talk openly about the role he or she might play in a future administration,&rdquo; the Journal points out. &ldquo;Treasury secretary is one of the most prominent positions in the government, interfacing with Wall Street, business leaders and foreign heads of state.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />It&rsquo;s at this moment we should recount how John Paulson achieved his renown in the financial world.
The Journal article says he &ldquo;burst into prominence by reaping an estimated $3 billion betting against subprime mortgages during the 2007&ndash;09 financial crisis.&rdquo;
Which is true, but it&rsquo;s not the full story.
In the run-up to the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs would often package up subprime mortgages and sell them to clients as mortgage-backed securities. Goldman go-getters knew these mortgages were destined to go sour. They&rsquo;d send each other internal emails bragging about the &ldquo;sh*tty deal&rdquo; they just made.
Key point: In many cases, Goldman created these securities only so that John Paulson could short the hell out of them &mdash; which, of course, was not disclosed to the buyers.
So no, it wasn&rsquo;t just John Paulson&rsquo;s investing acumen that netted him $3 billion ahead of the financial crisis. It was his active participation in other individuals&rsquo; overt acts of fraud &mdash; which the feds never prosecuted because Goldman was among the institutions deemed &ldquo;too big to fail.&rdquo;
Presumably Trump is aware of this history and just&hellip; doesn&rsquo;t&hellip; care.
But considering that Trump ascended to the presidency in part because of lingering outrage over the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis&hellip; the irony is thick.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />And in another demonstration of how you can&rsquo;t have enough contempt for the power elite in this country&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2Q1Nt3ld0wYj5xEz85GoN4/d49b313e2aee8a51987931f6f1f12297/ken_klippenstein_tweet.png" alt="Ken Klippenstein Tweet" />
&ldquo;Retired Gen. Mark Milley gave a fawning speech on Monday to a sea of tailored suits at the American Bankers Association&rsquo;s annual convention in New York,&rdquo; reports the independent journalist Ken Klippenstein.
Milley was named chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by Trump in 2019. He retired last year at age 65 to cash in on his four-star career.
&ldquo;From a capped military salary of $204,000 a year, Milley&rsquo;s income has skyrocketed,&rdquo; Klippenstein reports.
Not only is he a &ldquo;senior adviser&rdquo; at JPMorgan Chase, &ldquo;he&rsquo;s joined the faculties of Georgetown and Princeton, and also entered the lucrative paid speaking circuit. For his speeches, Milley is represented by the Harry Walker Agency.&rdquo;
Anyway, here&rsquo;s what Milley said: &ldquo;I know people thank all of us in uniform for our service, but I want to thank you and your service because the two key components of national security and the international scene is a strong military and a strong economy&hellip; I know that the people in the crowd are controlling basically $24 trillion, $25 trillion of a $30 trillion economy. So good on you for doing that.&rdquo;
The speech had zero substance, <a href="https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/gen-milley-tells-bankers-thank-you" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as Klippenstein documents</a> &mdash; much blather but no insight about the messes in the Middle East and Ukraine.
&ldquo;Milley dares not stick his neck out to make any predictions or even offer any suggestions for an end to all this,&rdquo; Klippenstein writes. &ldquo;Just this week, Milley was quoted all over the press as calling Donald Trump a &lsquo;fascist.&rsquo; But he didn&rsquo;t make a single direct reference to Trump in his talk. For the national security state, it doesn&rsquo;t matter who the next president will be.&rdquo;
Nor for the bankers. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon prospers <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/davos-welcomes-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">no matter who&rsquo;s in the Oval Office</a>.
Milley&rsquo;s speech is a vivid reminder of Thomas Jefferson&rsquo;s words in a letter to John Taylor in 1816&hellip;
&ldquo;And I sincerely believe with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; &amp; that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Comic Relief
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />You can&rsquo;t make this stuff up (and you&rsquo;ve gotta watch)&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/62lPHPnfOqIaQAZ3Pg0fLs/4bc4cecc221e461e35b25e33827f4506/gold_telegraph_tweet.png" alt="Gold Telegraph Tweet" />
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: What Does Musk Want?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In response to a reader&rsquo;s query on Tuesday &mdash; &ldquo;Musk donated $75 million to Trump's campaign. What could Musk want from Trump for $75 million?&rdquo; &mdash; another reader writes&hellip;
&ldquo;I think it's two things: (1) I actually think he believes in free speech; and (2) he said that he is likely to go to prison for something if Trump doesn't win. He and his companies are under investigation separately by, I think, 26 different government agencies. What would you pay if it kept you free?
&ldquo;Maybe more insightful is how much money would you spend being principled? That question often makes me wonder how principled I really am. But maybe not everyone is bad and just looking out for themselves like we are.&rdquo;
Dave responds: Musk&rsquo;s commitment to free speech is <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2023/04/14/the-catastrophe-of-ai/#335" target="_blank" rel="noopener">questionable at best</a>. But you do raise a valid point: As we mentioned last week, even The New York Times acknowledges that Musk&rsquo;s companies &ldquo;have been targeted in at least 20 recent investigations or reviews, including over the safety of his Tesla cars and the environmental damage caused by his rockets.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;I just love Emily and enjoy her articles,&rdquo; a reader writes after <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/who-is-still-undecided" target="_blank" rel="noopener">yesterday&rsquo;s edition</a>.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be glad when all the political #*&amp;@ is behind us but I&rsquo;m following it, as it certainly drives the financial world. More, more&hellip;&rdquo;
Dave: You&rsquo;ll be glad, I&rsquo;ll be glad, Emily will be glad&hellip;

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We come back to an ongoing theme in these digital pages — the malpractice of corporate media.

Even Worse Than Congress

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Election ad Nauseam
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />With just six days standing between us and Election Day 2024, relentless 24/7 campaign ads are ramping up in key battleground states and beyond. 
For instance, God help you if you&rsquo;re among the 300,000 eligible Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania!
Even before the fiasco at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, &ldquo;Harris had rolled out her economic proposals for the Puerto Rican community at stops in Philadelphia, including at a Puerto Rican restaurant,&rdquo; CNBC says.
But after Trump&rsquo;s opening act, insult comedian Tony Hinchcliffe disparaged an entire group of people on a national stage, Team Harris launched a &ldquo;30-second spot [on] platforms like YouTube TV, Hulu and Snapchat,&rdquo; targeting Puerto Rican voters.
Meanwhile, the Hispanic vote is more critical than ever. With 36.2 million Hispanics eligible to vote in 2024, up from 32.3 million in 2020, this growing electorate poses a serious problem for&hellip; Harris?
&ldquo;Trump seems to be making inroads with Hispanic voters,&rdquo; CNN says. &ldquo;In fact, he seems to be on his way to doing better with this group than any GOP presidential nominee since George W. Bush in 2004.&rdquo;
According to pollster Nate Silver, Trump leads Harris in Pennsylvania &mdash; 48.4% to 47.9%.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In Paradigm&rsquo;s home state of Maryland, the Senate race between Angela Alsobrooks and former Gov. Larry Hogan has turned into a &ldquo;verbal slugfest,&rdquo; according to local NBC affiliate WBAL.
In recent ads, Alsobrooks&rsquo; team has positioned this race as crucial for preserving Democratic control of the Senate, arguing that a vote for Hogan would effectively transfer power to Republicans.
Meanwhile, Hogan&rsquo;s campaign has chosen a surprising tactic: encouraging Maryland voters to split their ticket. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t complicated,&rdquo; says an ad spot (running ad nauseam), &ldquo;Harris and Hogan.&rdquo;
How&rsquo;s Hogan faring? Recent polling conducted from October 17&ndash;22 among likely Maryland voters shows Alsobrooks leading with 52% support while Hogan trails at 40%. (The joint Washington Post/UMD poll also shows Libertarian candidate Mike Scott capturing 4% of the vote.)
Which is virtually unchanged from a poll conducted in September. &ldquo;Given the ad volume over the last few weeks, I'm somewhat surprised that the overall margin is about the same,&rdquo; says University of Maryland Professor Michael Hanmer. Chalk it up to the law of diminishing returns&hellip; 
Touching briefly on those October poll numbers, some quick mental math shows that 4% of Maryland &ldquo;likely voters&rdquo; surveyed still haven&rsquo;t made up their minds.&nbsp;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Even amid the nationwide media blitz, a small &mdash; but potentially influential &mdash;segment of voters lingers: the undecideds.
This slight number of voters, comprising about 6% to the low teens of the electorate, could ultimately sway the presidential election&rsquo;s outcome. Here&rsquo;s a profile&hellip;
<ul>
<li>Undecided voters tend to be younger, be less educated and have lower incomes compared with the general electorate. They are also more likely to be Black or Latino, and slightly more men than women</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;Undecided voters are more likely to split their tickets than other voters,&rdquo; says Good Authority. But that might not be as statistically meaningful as it sounds: About 20% of undecideds split their ticket in 2020, &ldquo;compared to just 5% split-ticket voting among the rest of the electorate&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>This group of voters tend to distrust candidates&rsquo; character and suitability for the highest office in the land. This election cycle? Undecideds express concern about Trump&rsquo;s honesty as well as Harris&rsquo; inexperience.</li>
</ul>
Finally, undecided voters report that their questions pertaining to the economy, immigration and health care haven&rsquo;t been sufficiently answered.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />To win undecided voters then, campaigns would do well to combine a) personalized economic messaging with b) emotional connection. Which Harris had an opportunity to do last night in Washington, D.C. before a crowd, supposedly, 75,000 strong.
&ldquo;Harris spoke for just over 30 minutes Tuesday evening at the Ellipse, the same spot where Trump spoke to his supporters and encouraged them to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,&rdquo; The Hill notes.
Heh, symbolic much?
Plus, attorney Harris framed her comments at the rally as a legal indictment of Donald Trump. But according to one of our favorite independent journalists&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1gS0tBoe980cERZETrOePm/989685a65cbf7bb428296bb80174b1ed/tracey_tweet_1.png" alt="Tracey Tweet" />
At this point, the question is &mdash; and think about this as you&rsquo;re bombarded with campaign ads in the election&rsquo;s closing days &mdash; what could a campaign say now to persuade a voter who still hasn&rsquo;t made up his mind?
For what it&rsquo;s worth: &ldquo;Over the past two election cycles, undecided voters have clearly favored Donald Trump,&rdquo; Good Authority says. &ldquo;Trump won undecided voters by about a 20-point margin.&rdquo;
Also for what it&rsquo;s worth? &ldquo;Ultimately, undecided voters tend to matter only in the closest of elections, and 2024 seems poised to be just such an election.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />The Most Magnificent Megacap?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Google [has] a lovely setup for a post-earnings rally should the numbers impress investors,&rdquo; said Paradigm&rsquo;s chart hound Greg Guenthner yesterday, before Google&rsquo;s earnings announcement later in the afternoon.
With earnings per share clocking in at $2.12 and revenue at $88.27 billion, the company far exceeded consensus estimates for the quarter ending Sept. 30.
&ldquo;I love springboard plays like this,&rdquo; Greg reported. &ldquo;GOOG has already started to bounce. And could quickly run back to those all-time highs near $200 following a positive earnings reaction.&rdquo;
At last check, GOOG shares are up over 6% today, with plenty of room to run up to $200.
On Thursday afternoon, Apple will issue its own earnings report&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;AAPL is a beast, and arguably the most magnificent of the seven megacaps,&rdquo; Greg says. &ldquo;The company has exceeded earning estimates since 2022 &mdash; no small feat! And it has crushed its past four earnings reports,&rdquo; he adds.
&ldquo;Did I mention the chart is a thing of beauty? Check it out&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/49WQRkRjRYX4cqtnuxv3Ga/5e5a698ddf70889d145d640bb45f6699/mr-issue-img-10.29.24-img-2.png" alt="AAPL" />
&ldquo;The stock is up more than 85% off its early 2023 lows. And despite a maximum drop of approximately 30% during its most recent drawdown, the stock continues to power higher off each and every one of those lows.
&ldquo;AAPL shares are coiled tightly just below all-time highs. Barring a major negative surprise or a seismic shift in the market, it&rsquo;s difficult to imagine this stock failing to post new highs in the weeks ahead,&rdquo; Greg forecasts.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Taking a look at the rest of the market today, among the major U.S. stock indexes, the Big Board is faring best: up 0.25% to 42,340. 
At the same time, the S&amp;P 500 and techie Nasdaq are both up about 0.15% to 5,840 and 18,740 respectively.
Turning to the commodities complex, crude is up 2.10% to $68.64 for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate. Precious metals are flashing green and red. While gold is locking in another record high, up 0.60% to $2,798.90 per ounce, silver is down 1%, still over $34.
The crypto market is likewise split. Ethereum is up 2% to about $2,700. Even though Bitcoin is down 1%, the flagship crypto &mdash; at $72,000 &mdash; is at a level not seen since the summer.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />This morning, the Commerce Department issued its guess on third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) &mdash; an annualized 2.8%, lower than Wall Street&rsquo;s anticipated 3.0%. 
The LA Times reports: &ldquo;The growth was a slight deceleration from the 3% annualized increase in the second quarter, but U.S. economic activity continued to far outpace almost every other developed nation.&rdquo;
Hmm, you think they&rsquo;re trying to tell us something?
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6yuy3VpIr0dmZUC8WQI5px/c81a32c6313f05fe80256c4ea3be64dd/la_times_headline.png" alt="LA Times headline" />
&ldquo;While the U.S. economy may be the envy of the world, polls have consistently shown Americans are mired in a sour, griping mood when it comes to the economy,which may prove to be a significant factor in the election.&rdquo; [Emphasis ours]
OMG, I have a headache from being beaten over the head&hellip;
In other words: &ldquo;Shut your piehole! The economy is fine. Any personal experience to the contrary is purely coincidental.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Google&rsquo;s Viral Sensation
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;In September, a Google blog quietly announced a new feature its engineers built for its NotebookLM tool,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s AI expert James Altucher.
&ldquo;Nobody paid much attention &mdash; at first,&rdquo; he continues. &ldquo;The feature seemed simple: Drop in any document and two AI hosts would turn it into a podcast-style conversation.
&ldquo;But as users began experimenting, they discovered something extraordinary&hellip;
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;These weren't the robotic voices they'd come to expect from AI</li>
<li>These hosts had personality</li>
<li>They stumbled over words with natural &lsquo;ums&rsquo; and &lsquo;likes&rsquo;</li>
<li>They got excited about interesting details</li>
<li>The internet exploded.</li>
</ul>
&ldquo;Suddenly, social media was flooded with AI-generated podcasts about everything imaginable. The viral success took even Google by surprise.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;More importantly, it showed that Google hadn't lost its ability to innovate,&rdquo; James says. &ldquo;And this might just be the beginning&hellip;
&ldquo;Sources say Google is preparing to launch Gemini 2.0 in December, going head-to-head with OpenAI's next major release.
&ldquo;The company is also reportedly working on &lsquo;Project Jarvis,&rsquo; an ambitious AI tool that can automate web-based tasks like booking flights or researching products.
&ldquo;While Google hasn&rsquo;t publicly commented on these projects, the success of NotebookLM has changed the narrative.&rdquo;
James concludes: &ldquo;After years of stumbles, Google has shown it can still capture the public's imagination with groundbreaking AI technology.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />An Energy Reality Check
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />NextEra Energy's CEO John Ketchum emphasizes the growing demand for electricity in the U.S., projecting a sixfold increase in power needs over the next 20 years. 
This surge is largely driven by the expansion of data centers, which are expected to add around 460 terawatt hours of new electricity demand &mdash; at an annual growth rate of 22% from 2023&ndash;2030.
To address this rising demand, NextEra is focusing on renewable energy projects, including solar and wind facilities. However, Ketchum points out that nuclear energy must also play a role.
<ul>
<li>The nation will need an additional 900 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2040. But even if all potential nuclear plants could be recommissioned, they would only satisfy less than 1% of that demand.</li>
</ul>
Nonetheless, NextEra is evaluating the possibility of recommissioning the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, which has been offline since 2020.
&ldquo;And the Department of Energy has finalized a $1.52 billion loan to Holtec International to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan that would supply power to electric cooperatives in the Great Lakes region,&rdquo; says Corridor Business Journal. 
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />A Luxury Brand Has Lost the Plot
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Italian fashion house Moschino has whipped up a frenzy with its latest creation: a &pound;3,730 ($4,852) clutch&hellip; that looks like a bunch of damn celery.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2cseKuml44uLh8BrbQBk11/73061103f14e2858f94fd6de402aeb2f/celery_clutch_1.png" alt="Celery Clutch" width="300px" />
Courtesy: Moschino, The Daily Mail
&ldquo;The original accessory, titled the 'Sedano Bag,' is made out of nappa leather and is described by the brand as a 'maxi celery-shaped clutch with a digital print that has a three-dimensional effect,&rsquo;&rdquo; the Daily Mail says.
&ldquo;Its unique shape represents the symbol of Moschino's irreverent spirit,&rdquo; the company adds.
But in a cheeky response, bargain grocer Aldi is offering its luxury &ldquo;dupe.&rdquo; Namely, a real bunch of celery&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/66pvGknH1RphQBmIxzovEs/be20c8f460e11b5bb100f132f5a9f8ae/aldi_post.png" alt="Aldi fb post" />
Well played.
Take care! We&rsquo;ll be back with another 5 Bullets tomorrow.

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Even amid the nationwide media blitz, a small — but potentially influential —segment of voters lingers: the undecideds.

Who Is Still Undecided? 

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“Markets hate uncertainty.” Which is worth contemplating one week before an Election Day whose outcome likely won’t be known on election night.

What If the Election Is Undecided on Inauguration Day?

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Bezos Makes His Peace With Trump
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Three days ago, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sent a subtle but unmistakable signal to his fellow billionaires: Life will go on even if Donald Trump wins another term.
Not that it was reported that way anywhere: The news was that The Washington Post editorial board won&rsquo;t endorse a presidential candidate this year.
By most accounts, the orders came straight from Bezos, who bought the Post from the Graham family in 2013.
Perhaps you didn&rsquo;t even hear about it. After all, no one outside America&rsquo;s center-left intelligentsia cares about newspaper endorsements of candidates anymore.
But inside America&rsquo;s center-left intelligentsia, the meltdown was epic&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3uZU6JF9z7Nge0FTB2Y6vL/c005343f3fb2c395c2410bf917b34c55/BezosTweets.png" alt="Tweets about Bezos" />
To be sure, Bezos&rsquo; gambit is intriguing. The Post endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016. When she lost, the paper flamboyantly took on the mission of undermining Trump.
It adopted the pretentious slogan &ldquo;Democracy Dies in Darkness.&rdquo; Along with The New York Times, it relentlessly peddled the narrative that Trump was somehow &ldquo;colluding&rdquo; with the government of Russia &mdash; a narrative for which even Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no supporting evidence. Bezos&rsquo; rag then endorsed Joe Biden in 2020.
Our favorite political reporter Michael Tracey sees which way the winds are blowing now&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/21yQTaJHDsKh9LxupruoSE/9b0fee31fe9e67136c75755d97243319/tracey_tweet.png" alt="Michael Tracey Tweets" />
And Bezos is hardly alone&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The first clue that the power elite was making its peace with Trump came early this year at the World Economic Forum&rsquo;s annual shindig in Davos, Switzerland.
We chronicled it at the time: Blackstone Group founder Stephen Schwarzman signaled lukewarm support for Trump at a time Trump still had competition for the Republican nomination.
But the real bombshell came from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon &mdash; veteran Democratic donor, once rumored a top candidate for Barack Obama&rsquo;s Treasury secretary.
&ldquo;Take a step back, be honest,&rdquo; he told CNBC at Davos. &ldquo;He was kind of right about NATO, kind of right on immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Trade tax reform worked. He was right about some of China.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We can&rsquo;t underscore the contrast strongly enough compared with eight years ago.
As we&rsquo;ve chronicled before, there was almost no billionaire support for Donald Trump in 2016. The Wall Street Journal reported that nine of the 10 biggest donors gave to Hillary Clinton. (Home Depot&rsquo;s Bernie Marcus was the 10th.) Among donations of $1 million or more, Clinton collected $180 million, compared with Trump&rsquo;s $33 million.
Eight years later, Trump&rsquo;s elite backers include Elon Musk&hellip; the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen&hellip; and hedge fund operators Bill Ackman and Paul Singer. Andreessen was a Clinton supporter eight years ago. Ackman, too, has a history of backing Democrats and he supported Nikki Haley in the 2024 GOP primaries. Eight years ago, Singer was a Never-Trump Republican.
The landscape has shifted: Musk and Ackman on the Trump train.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs&rsquo; widow Laurene Powell Jobs backing Harris, either openly or quietly.
While Bezos and Jamie Dimon bide their time and hedge their bets&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />The &ldquo;Whoosh&rdquo; in Oil
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The price of oil has cratered 5.7% this morning because Iran&rsquo;s oil production and distribution is still up and running.
The first clue that Israel was about to carry out long-awaited airstrikes against Iran came on Friday afternoon &mdash; when U.S. aircraft began scrambling from Europe toward the Middle East&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3qjM5DOw33AYgGr3BOM9Np/e63a6f7f779706b35c746bb9b69e5b40/dana916_tweet.png" alt="dana916 tweet" />
It&rsquo;s become so predictable in recent years &mdash; major U.S. military action coming after U.S. markets close on Friday afternoon. On Friday Feb. 2 this year, U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria came the moment the market closed at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
In this instance, the Israeli military waited a few hours after Friday&rsquo;s close&hellip; and by most accounts U.S. forces had no direct involvement. According to Israel&rsquo;s Army Radio outlet, the U.S. jets were on standby to rescue Israeli pilots if need be.
The mainstream spin is that the attack succeeded in its objectives. &ldquo;The Israeli strikes on Iran hit several of Tehran&rsquo;s most advanced air defenses,&rdquo; says this morning&rsquo;s Wall Street Journal, &ldquo;exposing Iran&rsquo;s vulnerability to future attacks.&rdquo;
Gee, if it was such a smashing success, why are Israeli media reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to give Defense Minister Yoav Gallant the heave-ho?
It&rsquo;s all &ldquo;fog of war&rdquo; for the time being, but informed skeptics speculate that Israeli pilots encountered something unexpected on their way toward Iranian airspace and turned back. Whatever damage occurred was inflicted by missiles and drones.
&ldquo;This attack was extremely underwhelming,&rdquo; says the Armchair Warlord account on X &mdash; &ldquo;particularly given that the Israeli military has announced that (1) this was in fact the big retaliatory stroke; and (2) they&rsquo;ve finished the operation.&rdquo;
In any event, Iran&rsquo;s nuclear-power and oil-industry infrastructure remains intact this morning. With that, a barrel of West Texas intermediate trades for $67.68 &mdash; the lowest in four weeks.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />It&rsquo;s Mag 7 Week
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />As Tesla goes, so goes the rest of the Magnificent 7?
Five of the seven Big Tech-adjacent companies report their numbers this week&hellip;
<ul>
<li>Alphabet (GOOG) after the close tomorrow</li>
<li>Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) after the close Wednesday</li>
<li>Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) after the close Thursday.</li>
</ul>
The broad stock market as measured by the S&amp;P 500 has been moving sideways the last couple of weeks.
Given that the Mag 7 makes up 30% of the index&rsquo;s market cap&hellip; this week will prove decisive for the market&rsquo;s direction beyond October.
As we mentioned last week, Tesla was the first of the Mag 7 companies to report &mdash; and its upside surprise was so huge that TSLA posted a one-day gain of 22%, the biggest in over a decade.
&ldquo;Did TSLA just give us a preview of the big beats we&rsquo;re about to witness?&rdquo; wonders Paradigm chart hound Greg Guenthner.
He&rsquo;s keeping a close eye on a chart of the Roundhill Magnificent 7 ETF (MAGS) &mdash; which, as you might deduce, consists of nothing but the Mag 7 names.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1g8tHWTxBoCXcELoPiF3K1/33cdc9f497fd1de6500b722cf2c069c7/mag7_chart.png" alt="Mag 7 Chart" />
On the heels of Tesla&rsquo;s report, &ldquo;many of these other mega-caps are looking coiled and ready for action,&rdquo; says Greg. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see if they deliver.&rdquo;
(In case you&rsquo;re wondering, the last and most buzzy of the Mag 7 names &mdash; Nvidia &mdash; doesn&rsquo;t report its numbers till the second half of November.)
After a string of earnings reports like these&hellip; Friday&rsquo;s release of the October job numbers could prove anticlimactic.
Also this week we get the Commerce Department&rsquo;s first read on third-quarter GDP Wednesday and the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s preferred inflation measure on Thursday.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />In the meantime, the major U.S. stock indexes are starting the new week in the green.
The S&amp;P 500 is registering the weakest gain &mdash; up about a half percent to 5,835 at last check. The Nasdaq&rsquo;s gain is stronger and the Dow&rsquo;s the strongest.
Gold is inching down to $2,741; silver is creeping higher at $33.81. Bitcoin is knocking on the door of $69,000 after a failed breakout above that level a week ago today.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />The &ldquo;Data Disconnect&rdquo; Is Baaaack
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Oh no, not this again: &ldquo;A widespread, self-reported sense of financial strain suggests Americans think their financial lives are more precarious than economic data appears to indicate,&rdquo; reports the Axios news site.
According to a survey by Bank of America, nearly half of U.S. households report living paycheck to paycheck. But a separate analysis of customer behavior by Bank of America Institute finds that &ldquo;the share who are genuinely spending nearly all the income they take in on essentials is lower than survey data suggests,&rdquo; says Axios.
The discrepancy appears to hinge on how people define &ldquo;essentials.&rdquo; We&rsquo;ll spare you the details. If you&rsquo;re really interested, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/10/23/us-paycheck-economy-financial-strain-reality-gap" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have at it</a>.
Anyway, it&rsquo;s the latest entry in a long list of articles that implicitly chide everyday Americans for feeling economically strapped even though many statistical measures of the economy are superficially healthy.
The first we noticed was way back in March 2022, and a tweet from MSNBC: &ldquo;President Biden&rsquo;s approval rating has fallen to lowest level of his presidency despite booming economy.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s become so tired and predictable by now, it&rsquo;s the stuff of memes&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6q4wU1ZNt7ewdDTtegfCpe/044e7e81559f371706b284754dc76ad9/axios_meme.jpg" alt="Axios Meme" />
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />&ldquo;Intellectually Lazy and a Coward&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />To the mailbag, where the <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/golds-next-catalyst-happening-now#5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">withering criticism</a> by Trump supporters targeting third-party voters (or write-in voters or nonvoters) was too much for one of our semi-regulars&hellip; 
&ldquo;Sadly I write this to you. I have just learned that I am apparently intellectually lazy and a coward because I refuse to vote for either of the candidates that the two major parties have blessed us with.
&ldquo;I think I began suffering these maladies living through the four years of our previous president. You know, the guy who would lash out at numerous people HE brought into his administration and then drove out and totally belittled. The guy who told us how tariffs wouldn't cost us minions anything. You know, the narcissist guy. (Wonder when he will turn on RFK and Tulsi?)
&ldquo;I believe that the other cause of my malady may be caused by this most recent replacement candidate. I don't remember her participating in the primaries. You know the one that tells us how bad that other guy is and tells us that we need the government to protect us from the evil corporations that are price gouging. She's that assistant in the current administration that just finished adding $1.8 trillion to the country's $35-plus trillion debt.
&ldquo;On a somewhat positive note, I have heard of a possible cure&hellip; a candidate that would stop our meddling in other countries&rsquo; affairs. A candidate that would actually cut spending and balance the budget. It sounds promising &mdash; however, I am not too hopeful.
&ldquo;I am feeling a little weak right now, so I better get some rest the next two&ndash;three weeks. Appreciate your help and understanding. Thanks Dave.&rdquo;
Dave responds: Who is this non-meddling, budget-balancing candidate of which you speak?
Which reminds me: Back in 2008, after the GOP establishment sandbagged Ron Paul&rsquo;s candidacy (the first time)... Paul accomplished the extraordinary feat of getting four minor-party presidential candidates to agree on four platform planks including an end to the Iraq War, cutting the national debt and auditing the Federal Reserve.
He got everyone from Ralph Nader to one-time Moral Majority bigwig Chuck Baldwin to agree to these things.
It was an extraordinary moment. Alas, it took place less than a week before the collapse of Lehman Bros., followed by a series of bailouts that blew up the national debt by (what was then) an unprecedented degree.
We give the last word today to the meme-o-sphere &mdash; where Mr. Older Coffee-Cup Stock Photo Guy is weighing in&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/7t0yzd0HQyqUaGhnUZkhCB/bd2a4fe6d0808839a0cb9947644f7761/harold_meme.jpg" alt="Harold Meme" />

shutterstock 1399561367 (1)

Three days ago, Jeff Bezos sent a subtle but unmistakable signal to his fellow billionaires: Life will go on even if Donald Trump wins another term.

Bezos Accepts Trump

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />&ldquo;Little Tech&rdquo; Split-Tickets the Election
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Courting the crypto vote has reached new heights in this election cycle.
At the Bitcoin Conference earlier this year in Nashville, erstwhile candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to build a federal Bitcoin reserve of 4 million coins.
And Donald Trump, who once called Bitcoin &ldquo;a scam,&rdquo; carried forward the idea of a strategic national Bitcoin stockpile, promising to make the U.S. the &ldquo;crypto capital of the planet.&rdquo;
Even Kamala Harris &mdash; through surrogates &mdash; has signaled tepid support for &ldquo;digital assets.&rdquo;
This political pivot comes despite crypto's admittedly turbulent history, including price volatility and high-profile scandals like the FTX collapse.
Nevertheless, billionaire Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs, views this election season as a watershed moment&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;This is the most important election we've had, but I also believe no matter what happens, we're going to have [more] pro-crypto, more pro-innovation&hellip; than we've ever had,&rdquo; Garlinghouse says.
Ripple Labs, a veteran crypto company known for its crypto and &ldquo;native token&rdquo; XRP, has been at the forefront of this political engagement.
The company has made significant donations to pro-crypto PACs and campaigns &mdash; including $45 million to the crypto-centric PAC <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/crypto-playing-politics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fairshake</a> &mdash; featured heavily in yesterday&rsquo;s 5 Bullets. 
&ldquo;Our contributions to Fairshake are just one of the many ways Ripple will actively invest in educating voters on the role crypto will play in the future and the dangers of the anti-crypto stance some policymakers are clinging to in Washington,&rdquo; says Garlinghouse.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4iP4P8VCwoK8WAn6MUeaTM/a8585d1ed2a6e3bbb6c2e9c089a245c1/10.25_Crypto_Fairshake.png" alt="crypto lobbies for a fair shake in dc" />
Garlinghouse continues to express optimism about the post-election landscape &mdash; while not publicly endorsing a candidate himself.
Not so for Fairshake&rsquo;s third largest donors: the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz appear to be employing a strategy of &ldquo;split-ticketing&rdquo; to hedge their bets on presidential candidates.
Federal Election Commission filings reveal that Andreessen and Horowitz each contributed $2.5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, a move that shocked Silicon Valley.
&ldquo;At the time, they said they supported Trump&rsquo;s policies as most beneficial to cryptocurrency and startups, a position they called the &lsquo;little tech agenda,&rsquo;&rdquo; Bloomberg reports.
Andreessen himself went on to donate the maximum legal amount to Trump's campaign and the Republican Party. But Horowitz was cagey&hellip;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have a lot of friends who are probably pissed off at me for saying anything nice about President Trump,&rdquo; Horowitz said in July. &ldquo;For little tech, we think Donald Trump is actually the right choice.&rdquo;
More recently, Bloomberg says: &ldquo;Horowitz in October made another surprising announcement when he informed his firm that he&rsquo;d also be making a &lsquo;significant&rsquo; donation to Vice President Kamala Harris&rsquo; campaign, despite not knowing or endorsing her policies.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s a strategy that the Fairshake PAC believes will guarantee them, well, a fair shake in the Oval Office &mdash; regardless who wins.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />But as Garlinghouse says pointedly: &ldquo;No matter what happens, we're going to leave behind a failed approach from the Biden administration.&rdquo; 
For instance? Because of the current regulatory challenges in the U.S., 95% of Ripple's business occurs overseas. At present, Garlinghouse would advise fintech startups to &ldquo;incorporate outside the United States.&rdquo;
But he&rsquo;s confident in the long-term prospects of crypto here stateside. &ldquo;We're going to see forward progress, and I certainly am looking forward to that.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Anybody who doesn't believe that no matter what, we're going to end up in a better place,&rdquo; Garlinghouse concludes, &ldquo;is not paying attention.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />The Psychology of Earnings Surprises
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;When companies consistently beat their expected earnings, it helps drive the stock price higher&rdquo; &mdash; not necessarily for the logical reason you assume, according to trading pro, hedge-fund veteran and Paradigm&rsquo;s new team member, Enrique Abeyta.
&ldquo;The positive outcome makes you feel better physically,&rdquo; Enrique says, citing basic human physiology. &ldquo;When this happens, you will likely buy more of the stock,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;This buying enthusiasm is what helps power stocks higher.
&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s look at the earnings report for the past few years from the market&rsquo;s biggest winner, Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)... 
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/10kNUxfmbePcAj1ApsusuM/e190da83166ff30ce4437b3efa64195c/nvidia.png" alt="NVDA" />
&ldquo;The column labeled &lsquo;%Surp&rsquo; (outlined in red) is how the company has performed relative to investor expectations for earnings per share (EPS).
&ldquo;You can see that NVDA has recently been crushing expectations,&rdquo; Enrique adds. &ldquo;This has driven positive daily performance in the stock, which you can see in the next column titled &lsquo;%Px Chg.&rsquo;
&ldquo;Not only has the company been beating numbers nicely, but it has also been doing so consistently.
&ldquo;NVDA missed only one quarter in the last five years&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;These positive surprises &mdash; beating by a lot and consistently &mdash; create buying enthusiasm and higher stock prices,&rdquo; says Enrique.
Earlier this week, he continues, &ldquo;I spoke about the power of earnings growth to drive share prices higher. And it&rsquo;s true that earnings growth is <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/what-really-matters-this-earnings-season" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the most important single metric</a> to push a stock higher.
&ldquo;But if you can combine that with positive reporting surprises, you create a positive feedback loop that can create explosive returns!
&ldquo;So if you&rsquo;re looking to profit from emotional stock swings this earnings season, start by finding companies that consistently surprise,&rdquo; Enrique says.
&ldquo;There are other names in the semiconductor space that are also promising,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reports on Tuesday ahead of the other big chipmakers.
&ldquo;If the company and the rest of the semis provide positive surprises, they&rsquo;ll likely continue higher in short order.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Taking a look at the market today, the Nasdaq Composite Index has now exceeded its record-high close in July. 
At the time of writing, the tech-heavy index is up 1.35% to 18,665. Simultaneously, the S&amp;P 500 and the staid Dow are both in the green &mdash; up 0.75% (5,850) and 0.20% (42,455) respectively.
As for commodities, the price of oil has edged up 1% or just under $71 for a barrel of WTI. Precious metals? Gold is slightly in the green at $2,751.30 per ounce. But the lid&rsquo;s off silver today, up 0.80% and over $34.
Checking on crypto: Bitcoin is up 0.50% to $68,450 while Ethereum&rsquo;s up 0.75% to $2,550
The only major economic number to report comes from the U.S. Census Bureau. And for the second month in a row, orders for durable goods &mdash; anything designed to last longer than three years &mdash; were down 0.8% in September. That&rsquo;s only slightly better compared with Wall Street&rsquo;s expectations for a 1% drop.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />A New-ish Frontier in Nuclear Energy
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;I wonder if anyone is looking at using thorium instead of uranium?&rdquo; a reader asked last week after we spotlighted <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/rickards-and-altucher-agree-on-this-prediction/#2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google&rsquo;s nuclear foray</a> &mdash; namely, adopting energy produced by small nuclear reactors (SMRs) sometime before the end of this decade.
Small modular reactors (SMRs) represent a new generation of nuclear technology. These compact reactors are designed for factory assembly, and can be transported to their operational sites, offering flexibility in deployment.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3Fdeb5llNFzS6JQEQpHQ74/7f27c7b40794511636a3a249c017b249/atomic_energy.png" alt="reactors" />
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency Compare and contrast&hellip; 
While several SMR designs exist, they employ various cooling methods. For instance, some utilize traditional light water as a coolant, while others explore alternative options such as gas, liquid metal or molten salt. This diversity in design reflects ongoing innovation in the field of nuclear energy.
But getting back to our reader&rsquo;s question about thorium, we reached out to Paradigm&rsquo;s expert geologist &mdash; and retired Navy officer &mdash; Byron King.
&ldquo;The old U.S. Atomic Energy Commission pursued thorium ideas into the 1960s and early 1970s,&rdquo; he says.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Thorium never gained traction against uranium,basically because Navy nuclear drove the research, development and engineering,&rdquo; says Byron. &ldquo;[Adm. Hyman] Rickover wanted his submarines, and thorium would not work in those long steel tubes.
&ldquo;Right now,&rdquo; Byron adds, &ldquo;China, India and Russia have aggressive (i.e., state-funded) thorium programs. The U.S. has whatever the junior companies can raise money to accomplish, which is small-scale.
&ldquo;The U.S. nuclear industry will build what it knows how to build because that's what it can sell to investors and public utility commissions &mdash; meaning light-water reactors of traditional design, scale, etc.
&ldquo;As for small nuclear reactors, that tech is sort of out there, but NOT perfected. Nothing available to manufacture at scale.
&ldquo;The DOD is driving [this trend] though: Place a 40-foot container with SMR on a military base, and mitigate risk from the grid going down,&rdquo; Byron forecasts.
So while thorium-based small modular reactors (SMRs) are not yet in commercial operation, there&rsquo;s significant research and development underway.
[Of all things: British luxury-car company Rolls-Royce has reportedly developed a thorium-based SMR for the commercial shipping industry. Huh.]
As Byron concludes: &ldquo;The nuclear tech of the next five&ndash;10 years is already out there. But considering the time [to] design, permit, engineer, build, test, commence ops &mdash; 10 years is blazingly fast.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Questionable Brand Tricks
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />For a limited time, Goldfish crackers will be changing its name&hellip; to Chilean Sea Bass crackers? 
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/21pu8YlqSvY8UQQCY6YN9u/89f467e2aa847fb7c51df4b206300278/goldfish_meme.png" alt="goldfish" />
Photo Courtesy: Pepperidge Farm Inc.
&ldquo;Chilean Sea Bass is a playful nod to adults that the iconic fish-shaped snack is for grown-up tastes too,&rdquo; says vice president of Goldfish, Danielle Brown.
To be clear, the cracker&rsquo;s flavor profile is not that of Chilean sea bass (gross). But new flavors will drop, online only, every day through Oct. 30 at a very specific 9 a.m. EST.
But the only flavor we could give the thumbs-up to is the Goldfish Elf Maple Syrup Grahams. Sounds yummy (she says like a 3-year-old)...
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: From Japan, With Love
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Thanks for the informative newsletters,&rdquo; a first-time contributor writes.
&ldquo;I find Paradigm Press to be one of the few outlets that provide sensible, candid and no-BS-with-a-dash-of-humor reporting, which is becoming a luxury with the ultra-left MSM.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m actually from Japan, and <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/silver-squeeze-2024/#5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bullet No. 5</a> in this week&rsquo;s 5 Bullets really cracked me up. I was not expecting the smartphone blanket from Nitori to be picked up by you guys &mdash; as your newsletters are all about macroeconomic trends/analysis.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I certainly think it&rsquo;s a good idea to share a bit of interesting news from around the world.
&ldquo;I truly appreciate the quality of your articles, although the volume of emails/offer letters is a bit too much. I hope you find a happy middle ground based on feedback from readers.&rdquo;
Emily: Our new contributor is onto us&hellip;
Part of the 5 Bullets regular formula is to scare up quirky, offbeat items (see Goldfish above) for your amusement. Because who doesn't appreciate a good laugh now and then?
As for finding a &ldquo;happy middle ground,&rdquo; your input matters! As Dave mentioned earlier this week, we're excited about improvements coming your way, including reducing the number of emails you receive and offering transcripts for all sales presentations.
While we&rsquo;ll always have products to offer, as publisher Matt Insley admonished in a Paradigm-wide email Thursday morning&hellip;
&ldquo;Don't forget about our boss: the reader. Don't forget about our mission: publishing well-thought-out ideas that we're proud of.&rdquo;
With the ultimate outcome being that you, reader, &ldquo;are better off for it.&rdquo;

shutterstock 89007454 (1)

Courting the crypto vote has reached new heights in this election cycle.

Little Tech’s Election Power Play

shutterstock 560781481

This campaign ad looks like most other campaign ads, but the outfit behind the ad is pursuing an agenda that has nothing to do with either political party. 

Crypto Playing Politics

anw-hero-img-09-27-24 brics countries currency and gold bars concept photo

shutterstock 2361411583

Even if the BRICS nations don’t announce a new currency with partial gold backing this week… they’ll light a fire under the gold price nonetheless. 

Gold’s Next Catalyst: Happening Now

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Silver: Bad News (Maybe), Good News (Definitely)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />It seems &ldquo;silver squeeze&rdquo; is a thing on social media this week.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2GE8QHVJrGUiFRmPt4Qyb6/fea04a1324243c86de1cb10161a1f221/liberty_lady_tweet.png" alt="lady liberty tweet" />
Understandable, given the enormous jump on Friday from $32 an ounce to nearly $34. Today it&rsquo;s up to $34.55.
No doubt there are short sellers out there &mdash; betting on lower silver prices. And as the price rises, some of them will be squeezed &mdash; forced to cover their shorts, thus pushing the price still higher.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/Mjxr55mqcEo7JTK6ccbcy/f8a77a9cc0051b40660cea0d9dc4581f/SilverDemandMeme.png" alt="Silver Demand Meme" />
That number is somewhat overstated, according to one observer &mdash; but it&rsquo;s still astonishing.
&ldquo;The risk of an explosive silver short squeeze is further amplified by the astonishing ratio of 408 ounces of &lsquo;paper&rsquo; silver &mdash; ETFs, futures and other derivatives &mdash; for every single ounce of physical silver,&rdquo; writes Jesse Colombo at his Substack page.
&ldquo;In a violent short squeeze, holders of &lsquo;paper&rsquo; silver could be forced to scramble for the extremely scarce physical silver to fulfill their contractual obligations. This would cause the price of &lsquo;paper&rsquo; silver products to collapse, while physical silver prices would skyrocket to jaw-dropping levels, potentially reaching several hundred dollars per ounce&hellip;&rdquo;
Colombo&rsquo;s piece was picked up by ZeroHedge. It&rsquo;s not getting as many pageviews as election-related content&hellip; but is still impressive.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Of course, this isn&rsquo;t the first time there&rsquo;s been talk of a silver squeeze.
Remember the start of the &ldquo;meme stock&rdquo; craze in early 2021 &mdash; young people piling into dogmeat stocks like GameStop and AMC? They were doing so in part to punish the Wall Street pros who were shorting those stocks.
There was a brief abortive movement to squeeze the silver shorts then, too. The price jumped from under $25 to just over $30 in the space of a few days &mdash; and then it was over. Two months later, it was back below $25.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />If silver is going to take off, there will have to be reasons other than a short squeeze. Fortunately, there are plenty.
Over time, we&rsquo;ve described the fabulous supply-demand factors at work. We&rsquo;ll briefly recap here.
On the demand side, silver has emerged as a major component in the current designs of solar panels. By one estimate, solar accounts for 35% of total silver demand.
On the supply side, the silver price has been so beaten down for so long that the industry just hasn&rsquo;t invested in new production. Why bother, right?
Result: Silver demand has outstripped supply for the last four years.
All of these facts were fodder for cocktail-party chatter last week at the London Bullion Market Association&rsquo;s annual conference in Miami. &ldquo;I have never seen a better outlook for silver,&rdquo; said Michael Krebs, CEO at Coeur Mining.
That&rsquo;s saying something &mdash; Krebs got his start at Coeur nearly 30 years ago. He&rsquo;s seen it all, including the frenzy that drove silver to $50 in 2011.
Among the conference attendees, the consensus was that silver is poised to deliver better performance than gold or platinum or palladium during the next year &mdash; reaching $45 an ounce.
Longer term, we have every reason to expect even more. As Paradigm commodities guru Alan Knuckman is fond of reminding us, $50 silver in 2011 adjusted for inflation would be $70 silver now.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />But Don&rsquo;t Overlook Gold&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Here&rsquo;s an overlooked factor helping to drive gold to record levels &mdash; the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s interest rate cuts.
&ldquo;Gold has been hitting new highs as investors adjust for today&rsquo;s era of lower interest rates and look for ways to manage risk,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s income-investing pro Zach Scheidt. &ldquo;Lower interest rates tend to put pressure on the economic value of the U.S. dollar.&rdquo;
Of course, there are all the other factors we cite more often. &ldquo;Uncertainty surrounding the election, the federal deficit (and ballooning debt level), geopolitical tension and economic challenges are weighing on investors&rsquo; minds,&rdquo; Zach adds.
Last week we mentioned how the gold rally of 2022&ndash;24 <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/this-is-no-ordinary-gold-rally" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has been a strange one</a> &mdash; driven mostly by central bank buying. Both wealthy investors and mom-and-pops were selling gold the whole time.
That changed starting in May &mdash; when money finally started flowing back into the precious metals ETFs like GLD.
And that flow is just beginning. &ldquo;One thing to keep in mind is that traditional money managers still have a very small allocation to precious metals,&rdquo; Zach says. They are advising America&rsquo;s wealthiest investors to keep money in more speculative areas of the market.
&ldquo;This is important because as these money managers slowly start allocating more to precious metals, their buy orders could have a profound effect on the price of gold.&rdquo;
In the near term, Zach remains confident that gold can hit $3,000 at year-end &mdash; a number that seemed audacious when he made his $3k gold forecast at the start of the year and the Midas metal was barely $2K.
All that said, gold is &ldquo;due for a break soon, whether that means a pullback or some sideways consolidation,&rdquo; says Paradigm chart hound Greg Guenthner. &ldquo;The cat&rsquo;s out of the bag! Everyone and their third cousin is now hip to gold&rsquo;s explosive potential.&rdquo; (More from Greg below&hellip;)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />For the moment, however, gold is reaching higher into record territory &mdash; the bid up nearly $19 to $2,737. 
We noted silver&rsquo;s jump earlier &mdash; to levels last seen when it was climbing down from the 2011 high of $50.
The major U.S. stock indexes continue to take a breather, the S&amp;P 500 down a quarter percent to 5,839.
Always in search of &ldquo;reasons&rdquo; for every little move in the stock market, the media has settled on &ldquo;rising rates weighing on sentiment&rdquo; (CNBC). Sure, why not? The yield on a 10-year Treasury note is up to 4.21%, another three-month high. Mortgage rates are also the highest since July.
All else being equal, longer-term rates should be falling in sympathy with the Fed cutting shorter-term rates. But we can&rsquo;t say it often enough &mdash; the most dangerous word in all of investing is &ldquo;should.&rdquo;
What does the bond market know that the stock market hasn&rsquo;t figured out yet? We&rsquo;ll know in the fullness of time&hellip;
Crude is powering higher for no obvious reason &mdash; up $1.84 at last check to $72.40. Here it seems the media has settled on &ldquo;renewed optimism over Chinese demand&rdquo; (OilPrice.com). And with that, oil is back above its 50-day moving average.
No news of significance from the BRICS summit in Russia yet &mdash; Chinese president Xi Jinping arrived only a few hours ago. But we&rsquo;re keeping tabs&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Copper Coiled&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Let&rsquo;s not overlook copper. It&rsquo;s not a precious metal, but the profit opportunities are there nonetheless.
Last spring, copper was setting new highs. &ldquo;At the time, copper was successfully holding its $5 breakout and industry pure plays were exhibiting impressive momentum,&rdquo; recalls Paradigm trading pro Greg Guenthner. &ldquo;Southern Copper Corp. (SCCO) was tagging new highs to begin the second quarter and had already racked up year-to-date gains of 25%.
&ldquo;Copper failed to hold above its 2021&ndash;2022 highs and quickly lost that magical $5 level. Instead of consolidating its multiweek rally, everything began to fall apart. It was a rough summer to be a copper bull. By mid-August, the metal had coughed up all of its earlier gains, dropping more than 20% from its peak.&rdquo;
That was then, this is now: Greg annotates a chart of copper to illustrate how the red metal is repairing the damage from a &ldquo;false start&rdquo; breakout&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1AtKGyD5EtA36W6yTcES6t/a3cbd44a6080e110cd82c900d7329969/CopperFutures.png" alt="copper futures" />
&ldquo;Copper bottomed out in August and has since clawed its way back from the dead,&rdquo; says Greg &ldquo;Yes, it still has work to do. And we&rsquo;ve had to deal with some choppier action lately due to the will-they-or-won&rsquo;t-they stimulus plans out of China that have rattled the markets.&rdquo;
Today the will-they trade has pushed copper to $4.29. &ldquo;Copper futures could find legs again on a breakout above $4.75,&rdquo; Greg tells us, &ldquo;which would probably set up another $5 test. Plus, industry bellwether SCCO continues to look constructive at these levels.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />The Musk Investigations, Illustrated
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Who says The New York Times isn&rsquo;t good for anything?
We&rsquo;ve previously chronicled some of the tangles that government contractor Elon Musk is having with one or another government agency. In August of last year, we took note of the <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/elon-musk-cant-win" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bizarre circumstance</a> under which the Justice Department was going after SpaceX for its compliance with government arms-trafficking laws.
As I <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/elon-musk-just-caved" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> later that week, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to shake the thought that there&rsquo;s an orchestrated campaign to go after Musk on a variety of fronts and find something that sticks.&rdquo;
But don&rsquo;t take it from me. Take it from the NYT&rsquo;s graphics department&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3ZNKNaVGXV5TAHjW6Nt1xO/0b4befd61ddbb2dc8de44e0c63394694/Musk_Investigation.png" alt="musk investigations" />
<a id="5"></a>&ldquo;His companies have been targeted in at least 20 recent investigations or reviews,&rdquo; the paper reports, &ldquo;including over the safety of his Tesla cars and the environmental damage caused by his rockets.&rdquo;
Now we know&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />From Japan, the &ldquo;Smartphone Blanket&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We know some people look upon their smartphones as a kind of security blanket. But..
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5YIjxOmZCquizuAv8S4Ilb/c59a205fe0501213dcba5628c0dddd76/JapanBlanket.png" alt="smartphone blanket" />
[As advertised by Japan&rsquo;s largest furniture and home accessories chain&hellip;]
The Japanese furniture and home-goods giant Nitori is advertising a &ldquo;Smartphone Blanket.&rdquo;
According to the SoraNews24 site, &ldquo;This blanket is so comfortable it&rsquo;s been dubbed the &lsquo;blanket that ruins people&rsquo; because once you&rsquo;re in it, you won&rsquo;t want to go anywhere or do anything other than stare at your phone.
&ldquo;While it first made its debut in Japan last year as a wearable blanket without sleeves, it became so popular that it quickly sold out and was impossible to get during the depths of winter. This year, the chain has updated the blanket with new design features that make it even warmer and more comfortable than before.&rdquo;
The base model runs 3,990 yen &mdash; $26.42 at today&rsquo;s exchange rate. This year, you can also get a version with sleeves.
To be clear, you don&rsquo;t have to have a smartphone with you to enjoy the blanket. The marketing photos include a woman reading a magazine, for instance.
But clearly Nitori knows its market, so &ldquo;Smartphone Blanket&rdquo; it is.
Also, the notion of &ldquo;ruining people&rdquo; with the ultimate in comfort appears to be a thing in Japan. In our voluminous archives, we find an item from early 2023 about the Wearable Beanbag &mdash;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/46fde799R3NL4UvcNNCyzi/8421b7928b82c429515983f247311c46/JapanBlanket2.png" alt="beanbag" />
As SoraNews24 described it, &ldquo;designers seek to provide customers with comfort levels so supreme they won&rsquo;t ever want to move, leading to their ultimate ruin.&rdquo;
I dunno &mdash; maybe something&rsquo;s lost in translation?

shutterstock 2076061723

It seems “silver squeeze” is a thing on social media this week… 

Silver Squeeze 2024

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" /> Tuning Out the Earnings-Season Noise
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Earnings season is the most interesting time of year. It brings out the best and the worst in the markets,&rdquo; says Enrique Abeyta &mdash; hedge fund veteran and the newest member of the Paradigm Press team.
&ldquo;On the worst side, you see heightened volatility in many stocks. The vast majority of the time, this volatility results from &lsquo;noise&rsquo; especially to the downside.
&ldquo;Very often, when stocks get hit hard on earnings, it is not because of a major change in the fundamentals. Rather, it results from a small miss on a particular metric.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The media love to fixate on a company missing the vaunted Wall Street analyst estimates by a penny or two. 
&ldquo;This,&rdquo; says Enrique, &ldquo;is why you see such big moves on very little change in a stock&rsquo;s fundamentals: negative media coverage. Once you understand this, you can find moneymaking opportunities heavily skewed in your favor.&rdquo;
With all the big banks having reported their numbers in recent days, we&rsquo;re now headed into the &ldquo;meat&rdquo; of earnings season &mdash; dozens of S&amp;P 500 companies will weigh in starting tomorrow.
On Wednesday, Tesla will report &mdash; the first of the &ldquo;Magnificent 7&rdquo; companies to do so. Five more of the Mag 7 will follow next week.
As the Mag 7 goes, so goes the market: &ldquo;These companies make up more than 31% of the market capitalization of the S&amp;P 500,&rdquo; Enrique reminds us.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> What to expect? &ldquo;Recent results are the best predictor of what will happen next with companies,&rdquo; he goes on &mdash; especially huge ones with massive competitive moats like these companies.
Enrique pored over recent reports for all seven of these companies. His conclusion: &ldquo;There is a reason these names have powered the stock market higher.
&ldquo;Other than TSLA, these companies have been consistently beating numbers and seen positive earnings revisions. A few of them &mdash; NVDA and META &mdash; have absolutely blown away the numbers. As a group they have seen strong positive earnings revisions.
&ldquo;My experience over three decades as a professional investor is that large companies with long and consistent track records of beating numbers will continue to beat numbers.&rdquo;
And if the Mag 7 continue to beat numbers, that bodes well for the rest of the S&amp;P 500.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />What Really Matters During Earnings Season
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Here&rsquo;s something that will prove even more valuable over time as we head into the thick of earnings season: &ldquo;What if I told you,&rdquo; says Enrique, &ldquo;there was only one single metric you need to know to trade stocks?&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s true. He learned the hard way, slogging through dozens of useless ones for the better part of two decades. At the end of that process, he discovered only one data point really matters.
And no, it&rsquo;s not the price-earnings ratio. Indeed, he says valuation has nothing to do with it.
&ldquo;Not once in the stock market's history has a stock gone up just because it was &lsquo;cheap,&rsquo;&rdquo; says Enrique.
The real key is earnings growth.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Even Warren Buffett, the greatest value investor of all time, understands this,&rdquo; Enrique adds &mdash; drawing on the example of a famous Buffett stock, Coca-Cola.
&ldquo;Buffett bought his stake in KO back in 1988,&rdquo; he reminds us. &ldquo;That original $1.3 billion investment is now worth almost $25 billion!&rdquo; The share price has appreciated 2,193%.
Here&rsquo;s the thing: KO was not a value stock in 1988. It was trading for 16 times earnings &mdash; actually more expensive than the S&amp;P 500, which was about 14X earnings at the time.
Today, KO trades for about 25X earnings &mdash; a 56% increase in the valuation. But that drove only a small part of the returns.
&ldquo;The real driver was the earnings!&rdquo; says Enrique. &ldquo;Over the period, they&rsquo;ve gone up almost 2,400% and powered the stock price higher.
&ldquo;If the stock hadn&rsquo;t grown earnings like it has, I don&rsquo;t think it would have done very well for Buffett and other investors. It wasn&rsquo;t the valuation that made KO a fantastic stock &mdash; it was the EARNINGS GROWTH.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Earnings growth is the one single metric that always works,&rdquo; Enrique concludes.
&ldquo;If you find a company that&rsquo;s going to grow EPS from $1 to $10, then that stock is going up. It&rsquo;s that simple!&rdquo; Maybe not right away, and maybe not by a lot. &ldquo;But I guarantee you the stock is going higher.&rdquo;
With that in mind, what does he like right now? &ldquo;In my trading strategies, I look for stocks with solid growth that have stumbled &mdash; names such as Meta Platforms (META) and Nvidia (NVDA). This presents a greater chance that they will rally.
&ldquo;In my investing strategies, I look to identify stocks with huge growth &mdash; think Talen Energy (TLN) and Cava Group (CAVA). Find those, and you can find stocks that are 20-baggers like KO.&rdquo;
<a id="3"></a>If you&rsquo;d like more insights like these, we encourage you to sign up for our new Truth &amp; Trends e-letter where Enrique and chart hound Greg Guenthner will up your trading game every weekday. <a href="https://signups.dailyreckoning.com/2360104">Sign up here and look for new issues Monday&ndash;Friday at 8:00 a.m. Eastern.</a>
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Dollar Demolition Summit This Week
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Lost in the noise of the election and the Ukraine/Israel wars is this &mdash; &ldquo;the rise of the new BRICS currency and its potential role in the global monetary system,&rdquo; says Paradigm macro maven Jim Rickards.
Tomorrow, leaders of the BRICS nations gather for their annual summit in Kazan, Russia. The core five members of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will be joined by last year&rsquo;s additions &mdash; Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Egypt.
&ldquo;This meeting will include announcements moving the BRICS currency plans forward in material ways,&rdquo; Jim tells us. &ldquo;Members will announce significant progress in building out secure payment channels and admitting new members, which will drive the group closer to the critical mass needed to launch a currency union.
&ldquo;A new BRICS currency is coming soon in the role of a payment currency. This could be a big deal as it will mean the U.S. dollar will have a reduced role in total global payments. However, it will take longer for the BRIC to become a threat as a reserve currency as it takes time to build out the infrastructure needed to support it.
&ldquo;But a linkage of the new BRICS currency to gold could accelerate that process. Members of the BRICS currency union could use a surplus of the new currency to buy gold bullion to hold in their reserves. When needed for purchases or settlements, gold could be easily sold in the BRICS currency.
&ldquo;The common thread in these and other solutions is that they hinder U.S. dollar transactions. That&rsquo;s the point. And that is why central banks of many BRICS members have been buying so much gold in recent months.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> That said, the leader of the host nation is trying to tamp down expectations.
On Friday, Russian president Vladimir Putin met with media from BRICS member nations. &ldquo;At this point of time,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it [a BRICS currency] is a long term prospect. It is not under consideration.
&ldquo;BRICS will be cautious and act gradually, move slowly. The time has not come yet.&rdquo;
What is on the table, he said, are more intermediate steps. As reported by The Economic Times in India, &ldquo;Putin said these countries should focus on the use of the national currencies, new financial instruments and the creation of an analogue of SWIFT.&rdquo;
SWIFT is the international messaging system that greases the gears of global payments. It&rsquo;s based in Brussels, but Washington ultimately calls the shots. Many Russian financial institutions were shut out of SWIFT after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
While Russia has withstood Western sanctions far better than Western leaders anticipated, Moscow nonetheless wants to spin up a SWIFT alternative sooner rather than later. China and Iran would likely be on board with such a scheme.
&ldquo;When leaders of the BRICS agglomeration meet this week,&rdquo; sums up The Economic Times, &ldquo;the dominant theme would be how to ringfence themselves from the financial missiles the West fires to settle political scores.&rdquo;
More to come as the week goes on&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Bitcoin Breakout
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;It looks like Bitcoin is edging toward a major breakout,&rdquo; says Paradigm chart hound Greg Guenthner.
&ldquo;It started firming up late Sunday, holding above $69K. This is just below the last true attempt at a $70K break in May/June. Other cryptos were also starting to move as we wrapped up the weekend. Ethereum is dangerously close to breaking out of an inverse head and shoulders. Smaller cryptos are up and running.
&ldquo;Is this the beginning of a bigger breakout in the making &mdash; and the next leg of a Bitcoin run to 100K? I think this might be the case.&rdquo;
Yes, the flagship crypto has pulled back below $67,000 for the moment. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t discount a shakeout or two before Bitcoin actually decides to activate its booster rockets and extend into the $70K range &mdash; and beyond,&rdquo; Greg says.
Here&rsquo;s how he drew it on a chart Friday&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/CQveA1zID0j66tHJVjEuq/b3dc731811a7d2ede4a217cf5cdad264/BTC.png" alt="bitcoin" width="540px" />
&ldquo;If and when Bitcoin does extend higher, $100K is a downright reasonable price target for late December into early 2025.&rdquo; You heard it here first.
Then again, maybe you just rely on the &ldquo;McRib&rdquo; indicator? The wags at the TradingView site posted the following&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6w7mk7U1g8O70zxXBlaVs9/5b781804a579b4914a0985103bfd961c/Bitcoin-Dollar.png" alt="bitcoin/USD" width="540px" />
It&rsquo;s at this moment we&rsquo;ll remind you correlation does not equal causation&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />As for more conventional markets, stocks and bonds are both pulling back to start the week.
At last check the S&amp;P 500 is down nearly two-thirds of a percent from Friday&rsquo;s record close of 5,864. Meanwhile, falling bond prices translate to higher yields; the yield on a 10-year Treasury note is up to 4.16%, the highest since late July.
Crude has pushed a buck higher, back over $70. Precious metals tried to start the week extending Friday&rsquo;s rally&hellip; but at last check gold is little changed from the end of last week at $2,722. Likewise for silver at $33.69.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />You Spoke, We Listened
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> After we reopened the &ldquo;long boring videos&rdquo; can of worms last Thursday, we got a flood of feedback&hellip;
&ldquo;The videos that you send out for something new are too long. Most of us know the backgrounds of the people involved and we don&rsquo;t like to hear stuff repeated over and over. So if you could allow a short and long version or give the ability to skip some things, that would be great. Also, sometimes we get interrupted and ultimately have to restart from the beginning.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Stop the long-a$$ sales videos! Ugh!&rdquo; says one of our longtimers &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like trying to get attachment through Stockholm syndrome with hours of captivity!
&ldquo;I agree with the reader who commented on your own piece about the torrential flow of information. I research/read 10 hours per day about investing ideas. I just ignore the videos. Simply no time.&rdquo;
Adds a third: &ldquo;I am a sales guy and get the &lsquo;tell to sell&rsquo; &mdash; however I am an old guy who likes to read. How about a transcript of the videos I can print out and stuff in my briefcase and read whenever I want? Still long form.
&ldquo;And yes, I just spent an eternity watching Rickards&rsquo; long &lsquo;live from the gold mine&rsquo; video and yes, he extracted another two grand from me, but I think it will be worth it!&rdquo;
Dave responds: In case you missed it during <a href="https://concierge.paradigmpressgroup.com/post/paradigms-new-shift">our weekly Paradigm Press Concierge email</a> today&hellip; we are implementing several changes after our executive publisher Matt Insley solicited reader feedback last week.
We&rsquo;re already paring back the number of emails we&rsquo;re sending. And over the next week, we&rsquo;ll offer a transcript option with all of our sales presentations.
As I said on Thursday, we&rsquo;re always going to have something to sell because that&rsquo;s <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/who-we-are-and-what-were-all-about">the nature of our business model</a>. But your feedback is being heard.
Sometimes less is more: Our fervent hope is that measures like fewer emails will translate to greater customer loyalty. That&rsquo;s a win-win all around&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

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“Earnings season is the most interesting time of year.

What Really Matters This Earnings Season

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />From Bonds to Bars
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Gold's star is rising as a potential safe-haven replacement for Treasury bonds in investors' portfolios, according to a recent Bank of America note. 
The precious metal has been on a remarkable run, surging over 30% this year and reaching $2,707 an ounce on Thursday.
Several factors have fueled gold's ascent: <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/this-is-no-ordinary-gold-rally">central bank purchases,</a> falling interest rates and emerging interest from U.S. retail investors.
(Even Costco shoppers, as we&rsquo;ve mentioned from time to time, are getting in on the action, <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/costco-gold-and-biden-bucks">snapping up gold bars</a> alongside their two-liter bottles of olive oil.)
Now, Bank of America commodity strategist Michael Widmer suggests that mounting concerns over U.S. debt levels could be a key driver of gold's price surge.
With the presidential election just 18 days away, neither candidate seems to have a solid plan to address the nation's ballooning debt.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> And it's not just Uncle Sam who's swimming in a sea of red&hellip; 
Widmer notes: &ldquo;Spending commitments are likely to rise, as countries adapt to and tackle climate change, demographics become more challenging and defense spending likely goes up too.&rdquo;
[More on tackling climate change in a moment.]
This global borrowing binge could make investors wary of sovereign debt, including Treasury bonds, potentially boosting gold's appeal.
&ldquo;With lingering concerns over U.S. funding needs and their impact on the U.S. Treasury market, the yellow metal may become the ultimate perceived safe-haven asset,&rdquo; says Widmer.
He's sticking to his guns with a $3,000 price target for gold. (As we mentioned yesterday, in January, Paradigm&rsquo;s own Zach Scheidt predicted $3,000 gold by the end of 2024.)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Comparing gold and Treasury bonds reveals some interesting contrasts. While Treasury bonds offer guaranteed returns and TIPS provide built-in inflation protection, gold's allure lies in its potential as a hedge against currency devaluation and economic uncertainty.
In one sense, gold's storage complexity can be a drawback. On the other hand? Well, it&rsquo;s worth repeating: &ldquo;Gold is a physical non-digital asset that cannot be stolen, frozen or seized provided it is in safe storage,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s macro expert Jim Rickards.
Plus, gold&rsquo;s performance during times of crisis is impressive. Following the 2008 financial meltdown, for instance, gold prices skyrocketed nearly 24% in 2009 alone.
And since the current (unconventional) gold bull market started two years ago? Gold is up 66% as of Oct. 24, 2022. At the same time&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Recession signs are real and growing worse,&rdquo; Jim says, including tight credit conditions and yo-yoing jobless claims.
&ldquo;The world is searching for a safe haven away from government-induced inflation (fiscal policy) or central bank-induced inflation (monetary policy),&rdquo; he adds.
&ldquo;Treasury notes and gold are both high-quality assets that compete for investor allocations,&rdquo; Jim says. &ldquo;Gold does not have a yield (although it can produce significant capital gains).
&ldquo;When yields on Treasuries drop, the zero yield on gold is relatively more attractive compared with the note yield, and gold prices start to rally.&rdquo;
This just in&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/7gbvK3TpamDuP0h0rmIkuD/f3b744274edeee82b41f6ca5406c0c7e/Jim-Tweet.png" alt="jim tweet" width="540px" />
&ldquo;If the yield to maturity on the 10-year Treasury note were to drop,&rdquo; &mdash; and the yield at 4.07% today is down 0.85% year-over-year &mdash; &ldquo;gold could continue its upward trend to $3,000 per ounce or much higher,&rdquo; Jim concludes.

[Note: Jim Rickards just leaked this live footage below from one of America&rsquo;s secret gold locations&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2OhuEioclVEhFB0OIyDHk9/f921c654cb3e5f03a8141caaed6fe435/rgf-gold-mine-img.gif" alt="gold mine" width="450px" />
What Jim found inside is leading him to make a bold statement: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t buy another ounce of gold until you see what came out of here.&rdquo;
And it&rsquo;s led to Jim green-lighting a $1 million investment that he&rsquo;ll tell you more about in <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2368952">this on-location report&hellip;</a>
Plus, he&rsquo;ll reveal a unique investment vehicle that can return 10X, 50X, even 100X your money in the coming years.
But this window of opportunity will not stay open for long. <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2368952">Click here now to see what Jim Rickards found in this secret location.</a>]

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />A Resurrection: &ldquo;Three Months in the Making&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;The S&amp;P 500 and Papa Dow are grinding toward their highest weekly closes in history,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s chart hound Greg Guenthner.
In fact, taking a look at our screens, the S&amp;P 500 has gained 0.30% to 5,860 while the Big Board sits at 43,240.
&ldquo;Participation beneath the surface is expanding. And speculative areas of the market are heating up,&rdquo; Greg continues. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s classic bull market behavior. In fact, a market melt-up could be in the works.&rdquo;
About that Nasdaq sell-off earlier this week: &ldquo;I think we can all agree the Nasdaq was due for a breather,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Remember, price doesn&rsquo;t move in a straight line. It expands and contracts through a series of rallies and corrections.
&ldquo;Perhaps the correction will last a few days or even a few weeks. Both would be fine as the uptrend remains intact, and the rest of the market screams buy.&rdquo;
The Nasdaq today? Up 0.60% to 18,480.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;It feels like a lifetime since the small-cap Russell 2000 jumped more than 10% in just five trading days,&rdquo; Greg notes.
&ldquo;But everything changed this week as we were treated to <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/a-small-caps-resurrection">a breakout nearly three months in the making&hellip;</a>
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6ns4zvaExHiiJwKsUWb4GK/795843de83fd73a58beba87c9df9f970/Russell2000.png" alt="Russell 2000" width="540px" />
&ldquo;The Russell 2000&rdquo; &mdash; represented by the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) &mdash; &ldquo;just posted its highest close since 2021,&rdquo; Greg says.
&ldquo;Are you paying attention yet? Small caps are breaking out into thin air just as we&rsquo;re entering melt-up season.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a rough ride,&rdquo; says Greg. &ldquo;But I have a feeling an extended move higher will reward patient traders into 2025.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Here Come Rolling Blackouts?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The Supreme Court's recent decision to allow the EPA's new emissions limits for power plants has sparked concern about the potential strain on the U.S. electrical grid.
The ruling, which rebuffs businesses and Republican-led states, gives Team Biden a green light to enforce stringent regulations on an industry allegedly responsible for a quarter of the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
Critics argue these new rules could force power plants to close prematurely, potentially threatening the reliability of the electrical grid &mdash; at a time when demand is surging due to AI, data centers and electric vehicles.
The Edison Electric Institute, representing investor-owned utilities, expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court&rsquo;s decision&hellip;
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;While EEI's member electric companies are investing in <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2023/05/25/natural-gas-gets-blacklisted/">carbon capture</a> and storage and are excited by its potential, the current reality is that this technology has yet to be adequately demonstrated as required by the Clean Air Act.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
On the other hand, environmentalists are celebrating. Meredith Hankins, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, calls SCOTUS&rsquo; decision &ldquo;a victory for common sense.&rdquo;
She brushes off &ldquo;power producers&rdquo; who &ldquo;don't need immediate relief from modest standards that kick in eight years from now, and states have plenty of time to begin their planning process."
Well&hellip; 
Serious questions remain about how the power industry will adapt to new regulations. And whether the electrical grid can withstand the potential closures of fossil fuel plants while simultaneously meeting increasing energy demands.
Yeah&hellip; <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2023/02/13/americas-third-world-electric-grid/">South African-level load shedding, anyone?</a>
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Not Just for Celebrities Anymore
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Klarna's digital companion promises to revolutionize shopping, bringing the personal shopper experience to the masses,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s AI expert James Altucher.
Developed with OpenAI, this chat-based tool helps users search products, compare options and receive tailored recommendations. It can discuss style preferences and even assist in gift-finding.
David Fock, Klarna's chief product officer, says: &ldquo;For decades, the tech industry assumed that the online shopping experience was tied up by a small number of massive tech players, which led to underinvestment.
&ldquo;That's created an opportunity for companies like Klarna, and we are enlisting AI to challenge the incumbents,&rdquo; he says.
Other e-commerce giants, including Amazon with Rufus AI, are developing similar technologies to offer expert advice and personalized recommendations 24/7.
For retailers, these AI tools can increase sales, follow up on abandoned carts and gather customer insights while enhancing customer loyalty and engagement.
&ldquo;For investors exploring retail opportunities, the key will be identifying companies that not only adopt this technology but innovate with it,&rdquo; James adds.
&ldquo;The real winners will be those who use AI to create truly personalized, engaging shopping experiences.&rdquo; Stay tuned for the best ways to capitalize on this AI-retail trend&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />A Wick-ed Bad Design Blunder
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Ah, Bath &amp; Body Works &mdash; mall mainstay and purveyor of scented soaps, lotions and candles &mdash; has stirred a commotion just in time for the holiday-shopping season. 
&ldquo;Every year, the retailer rolls out its collection of holiday-scented candles that amount to nearly 40% of its annual sales,&rdquo; says CNN.
But their latest offering, the &ldquo;Snowed In&rdquo; candle, missed the mark badly on winter whimsy and landed squarely in Klan territory&hellip;

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/340rwQhqEW9O4HXUW5g6FX/87b805e7574a09a59d1bc803546b1d6d/candle.png" alt="candle" width="300px" />

Source: Bath &amp; Body Works Inc. Who knew a paper snowflake could cause such a kerfuffle?
Social media sleuths quickly pointed out the uncanny resemblance to certain pointy-headed hate mongers. Cue the birth of catchy monikers like &ldquo;klandle&rdquo; and &ldquo;Klan Krismas Kandle.&rdquo;
Bath &amp; Body Works, realizing they'd stepped in a steaming pile of controversy, swiftly pulled the plug on the candle. Their apology? A masterclass in corporate hand-wringing: &ldquo;We are committed to fixing any mistakes we make &mdash; even those that are unintentional like this one.&rdquo;
But for collectors of questionable memorabilia, the &ldquo;klandle" has found a new home on sites like eBay and Mercari, where enterprising individuals are hawking it for a mere $600.
Because nothing says &ldquo;I have more money than sense&rdquo; quite like overpaying for a candle with a problematic design.
One can almost smell the PR team&rsquo;s flop sweats from here&hellip;
On that funky note, enjoy the weekend!
And for more gold goodness, check out Saturday&rsquo;s issue&hellip;
Best regards,
Emily Clancy Paradigm Pressroom&rsquo;s 5 Bullets
P.S. As for precious metals today, they&rsquo;re bounding up in spectacular fashion. Gold&rsquo;s up another $25 per ounce to $2,732.90 per ounce. At the same time, silver is on a tear &mdash; up 3.85% to a shade under $33.
Meanwhile, the price of crude is down over 1%, now below $70 for a barrel of WTI.
The crypto market, however, is getting some love. Bitcoin is up about 3% to $68,830 and Ethereum is up 2% to $2,645.

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Gold's star is rising as a potential safe-haven replacement for Treasury bonds in investors' portfolios, according to a recent Bank of America note. 